From Friday 3, until Sunday 5 April, we held a wānaka rakatahi at Te Tauraka Waka a Māui Marae.
A group of 10 rakatahi left their cell phones and iPads behind to spend Easter Weekend at the marae where they learned new skills, such as how to put down a hāngī using traditional methods, how to weave a kono, and how fire was started i ngā rā o mua – before matches and flints.
Jeff Mahuika and Paul Madgwick passed on some of the old Māori bush craft they learned from their kaumātua when they were rakatahi themselves.
Everyone enjoyed their time in the bush building a maimai, a visit to the beach to collect waitai (white quartz stones) for the hāngī and kuku (mussels) for the bonfire, and of course time down the awa looking for our taonga kōhatu, aotea.
They had a fire lighting demonstration, using only dry mahoe and kaikōmako, although on this occasion the old adage ‘where there’s smoke there’s fire’ was not necessarily true – hei aha, it was all a new experience.
Rakatahi also had fun making and throwing tekateka made from harakeke. The competitive edge came out, when they had a competition to see who could throw the furthest – toa of the day was Dennis Kihi who threw a respectable 80 metres.
Back at the marae, Susan Wallace helped the rakatahi with their pepeha and a waiata, and they also got to experience a kawe mate as whānau arrived with a photo of Aunty Rebecca, plus two 100-year-old ‘death pennies’ from World War 1 for the two Katau brothers who left Makaawhio Pā to fight overseas, never to return.
The highlight was building their own hāngī from scratch, from digging the hole and gathering the wood, to pulling up the steaming basket. The waitai cooked everything to perfection, and about 40 whānau arrived to tuck into a delicious hāngī courtesy of the rakatahi.
The weekend was rounded off with a short Easter church service in our whare tipuna Kaipo, led by our Upoko Rūnanga, Archdeacon Richard Wallace, after which everyone was treated to some Easter eggs.
It was a great weekend of whanaungatanga and learning, where the rakatahi learned a little about their whakapapa and shared histories, some valuable new skills, how to behave on the marae and most importantly, manaakitanga.
More wānaka will be held to reinforce and add to everything learned, including some of the fishing that was ruled out because of the weather.
Kaumātua Thomas Rochford demonstrates how to make a kono.
Rakatahi take a break.
Paul Madgwick points out landmarks and shares stories of our awa with the rakatahi.
Tutoko Wallace-Jones leading the group in a team building exercise.