Last night we slept on the Waiwhetu marae. It dawned on me that I haven't included any photos of the whare (meeting house). This is the building where all important meetings (hui) take place and also where guests can come to be fed and sleep. The Waiwhetu marae has hosted Kofi Anan as well as our distinguished group of Fulbright scholars. Here is the entrance to the whare. At the top of the roof is a carving representing the ancestor that the house is named after. The carvings along the line of the roof are the arms of the ancestor, the door the mouth, and the window the eye. Here is a drawing that labels the parts of the whare.
Here is where we slept. Before supper (evening tea, served two hours after dinner) we had a lecture on the house and what the different carvings and weavings meant. Every carving, called poupou, represents an ancestor (at this particular house, made for many tribes to use, they are from all over New Zealand, in other houses they are just from the specific tribe that built the house). The carvings are interspersed with weaving, tukutuku, that tell stories. The carvings and weaving are bordered by kowhaiwhai paintings which are also highly symbolic. In order to carve, weave, or paint, a person has to be apprenticed to a master carver, weaver or painter and learn the proper way to do the work. All three activities are considered tapu (sacred and taboo at the same time).
After the lecture and evening tea, it started to feel a lot like a big slumber party. Cindy, Juan Carlos and I came up with a series of quiz questions for the group and hosted our own quiz night. The categories were Language and Literature (sample question: In what Shakespeare play would you hear the line "the quality of mercy is not strained"?), Music (sample question: In what decade did Prince drive his little red corvette?), Movies and TV (sample question: Who was asked to play Humphrey Bogart's role in Casablanca but turned it down), It's Trashtacular (sample question: How many times has J Lo been married), and New Zealand (sample question: What is an "ankle bitter"?). All the teams did the best in the trashtacular category, much to their great embarrassment.
The three quiz masters.
Sample quiz question answers: Merchant of Venice, 1980s, Ronald Reagan, 3, and a small child.
Here is where we slept. Before supper (evening tea, served two hours after dinner) we had a lecture on the house and what the different carvings and weavings meant. Every carving, called poupou, represents an ancestor (at this particular house, made for many tribes to use, they are from all over New Zealand, in other houses they are just from the specific tribe that built the house). The carvings are interspersed with weaving, tukutuku, that tell stories. The carvings and weaving are bordered by kowhaiwhai paintings which are also highly symbolic. In order to carve, weave, or paint, a person has to be apprenticed to a master carver, weaver or painter and learn the proper way to do the work. All three activities are considered tapu (sacred and taboo at the same time).
After the lecture and evening tea, it started to feel a lot like a big slumber party. Cindy, Juan Carlos and I came up with a series of quiz questions for the group and hosted our own quiz night. The categories were Language and Literature (sample question: In what Shakespeare play would you hear the line "the quality of mercy is not strained"?), Music (sample question: In what decade did Prince drive his little red corvette?), Movies and TV (sample question: Who was asked to play Humphrey Bogart's role in Casablanca but turned it down), It's Trashtacular (sample question: How many times has J Lo been married), and New Zealand (sample question: What is an "ankle bitter"?). All the teams did the best in the trashtacular category, much to their great embarrassment.
The three quiz masters.Sample quiz question answers: Merchant of Venice, 1980s, Ronald Reagan, 3, and a small child.
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