The following was an AP story that came out following the March shootings in Christchurch, and the front page of the most recent newsletter,
Pipipi, from Hinewai. Generalizing, the people of New Zealand and Christchurch have a strong sense of identity/place, are very kind and caring, and are quite resilient. We are lucky to be part of the Lincoln and South Island community while we are there and are very grateful to all of the folks there that open their hearts and homes to us and help us teach our class. We will get to see the Christchurch rebuild taking place in the Central Business District as well as have time at a Marae in Kaikoura which served as the community center following a large earthquake in 2016. We will also have special time at Hinewai.
"Though
hakas were traditionally performed by the Maori people in preparation
for battle, they are not all about war, Wehi says. Hakas are performed
to celebrate and to mourn, and are often part of important events such
as funerals or 21st birthdays. In the aftermath of the shootings, Wehi
says, people across New Zealand have performed hakas to show support and
respect for the victims and their families."
‘Rise up!’ NZ students heal with haka after mosque attacks
By KRISTEN GELINEAUMarch 22, 2019
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — Their voices have thundered across
this heartsick city, in parks and at flower memorials and schools. Day
after day, the students of Christchurch have gathered, feet smashing the
ground in unison as they chant the words of their nation’s indigenous
people in an outpouring of grief and love and support.
In the
aftermath of last week’s deadly shooting spree on two mosques blamed on a
white supremacist, the young people of Christchurch have found solace
in an old tradition: a Maori ceremonial dance called the haka.
To
much of the world, the haka is largely associated with New Zealand’s
rugby team, the All Blacks, who perform it before games. That has led to
a misconception that it is solely a war dance meant to inspire fear.
But though it may have started out that way, the haka has evolved to
mean so much more.
“Whenever I haka, I feel like I am from the tribe, standing with them
— that all their spirits are with us,” said high school student Georgia
Horiana Myers Meihana, after she and her classmates finished reciting a
karakia, or Maori prayer, at a flower memorial. “To us, it doesn’t feel
like we’re just shouting words.”
Millions around the world have
viewed videos of the students’ hakas over the past week, with many
people commenting that they have been moved to tears, even if they don’t
understand what the Maori words mean. Such a reaction is not
surprising, says Tapeta Wehi, founder of the New Zealand performance
group The Haka Experience.
“I’ve performed haka around the world,
and that’s normal,” Wehi says. “I remember performing it in Germany, and
I had these big German guys coming up to me with tears in their eyes,
wondering why they’re crying. It’s the inner spirit that we portray.”
Though
hakas were traditionally performed by the Maori people in preparation
for battle, they are not all about war, Wehi says. Hakas are performed
to celebrate and to mourn, and are often part of important events such
as funerals or 21st birthdays. In the aftermath of the shootings, Wehi
says, people across New Zealand have performed hakas to show support and
respect for the victims and their families.
For the students, the
haka has served as a powerful form of healing after a harrowing week in
which they lost friends and the sense of safety that came from living
in a nation previously largely immune to mass gun violence. Many New
Zealand students learn how to perform hakas in school. Some schools have
hakas specifically written for them; other schools teach traditional
hakas.
On
Monday, more than a thousand students gathered for a vigil in the park
across from one of the mosques that was attacked. White and Maori,
Catholic and Muslim, they stood and performed a haka that held a
particularly poignant meaning: It is the haka used by Cashmere High
School, which lost two students in the attack.
This haka, called
Tahu Potiki, comes from the South Island Maori tribe Ngai Tahu, said
Cashmere High Principal Mark Wilson. Tahu Potiki was an ancestor of Ngai
Tahu, and the haka calls for his descendants to rise and claim their
place in the new day, Wilson said. Being part of a haka group can be a
powerful emotive moment, he said, one in which people are left uplifted
and strengthened.
In some ways, the students’ response to the
attacks has been similar to the aftermath of last year’s mass shooting
at a school in Parkland, Florida, where it was the voices of the youth
that rose above the din. The students of Parkland — around 30 of whom
actually visited Christchurch last year — united to demand gun law
reform. In Christchurch, the students have united in an utter rejection
of the intolerance spewed by the white supremacist accused of the
massacre.
“It melts my heart,” 15-year-old Seraphim Tempest said
after joining in Monday’s performance of the Tahu Potiki. “It’s just
showing that everyone’s the same here and we accept everyone.”
Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern has encouraged students to turn to the haka in
the wake of the attacks, particularly if they are struggling to express
themselves.
“Never underestimate the power of just sending a
message, looking out for someone, performing a haka,” Ardern told
students at Cashmere High after they performed the Tahu Potiki for her
during a visit on Wednesday. “There is power in that, because in doing
that, you are sending a message of solidarity and of support.”
Fourteen-year-old
Rayhan Satriawan was born in Indonesia, but later moved to New Zealand.
Two of his friends were killed in the attack, something he is still
struggling to understand. He hopes the message behind the students’
hakas will carry beyond Christchurch to the rest of the world — that no
matter how different people seem, he says, “we are one.”
“I want to stay strong,” he says. “Everything that I do in my life is going to be on behalf of the people who have died.”
And
when the students stood to perform the Tahu Potiki at their vigil on
Monday, their strength was clear in every stamp of their feet, every
slap of their chest. Together, they roared:
“MARAKA! MARAKA!”
RISE UP! RISE UP!
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FILE
- In this March 18, 2019, file photo, students perform the Haka during a
vigil to commemorate victims of Friday's shooting, outside the Al Noor
mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. Day after day, the students of
Christchurch have gathered, feet smashing the ground in unison as they
chant the words of their nation's indigenous people in an outpouring of
grief and love and support. In the aftermath of a white supremacist's
deadly shooting spree on two mosques on March 15, the young people of
Christchurch have found solace in an old tradition: a Maori ceremonial
dance called the haka. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
The following is the most recent newsletter cover for Hinewai Reserve. Caretaker and Botanist, Hugh Wilson, hand writes and illustrates this publication.
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