Noho Marae

My apologies for not posting sooner, and taking a while to finish my post before this.  I'm finally getting going with schoolwork and had my first big essay assignment due this Friday.  That's completed though, so I get to relax in Auckland for the weekend, and fill you in on last weekend. 

I got to spend a weekend soaking up Maori culture at the AUT Noho Marae weekend.  The first event was an international potluck on Friday, where we each brought a dish form our home country.  I made apple crisp.  There was SO much food and it was all so tasty!

After very full bellies, we relaxed a bit before heading out to the foam party put on by the students association on campus. 

 Here I'm with some of the new friends I met just earlier at the Noho Marae. 

 This is me with Stefan and Raul. 

 This was at the beginning of the night, even more people came out later.  It was an absolutely crazy event, but a lot of fun! 

The following day we went to the Marae again, the meeting house and place of learning in Marori culture.  We learned a new song. 

Then learn another song that went along with a stick game.  The stick games are taught to children form a young age and are meant to encourage hand eye coordination.  So as you can imagine I wasn't to good at this. 

After learning these songs we had a break for lunch, meat pies yum yum.

The Maori say, "we don't eat until we're full, we eat until we're tired." So when we were once again full and tired the boys went off to learn the Haka and the girls learned the Poi dance. 

We began by making our own Poi, a ball on a string.  The Poi was originally used by men to strengthen their wrists for battle.  Later though it was used by woman in dance, and is supposed to be an extension of our strength and beauty. 

She's already using her Poi!

After our hard work learning we took a quick break before our concert that evening where we performed all we had learned. 

I was impressed by the boys Haka, but I couldn't help smiling as they made their warrior faces. 

After a very busy day learned so many songs and dances, we had some 'Free Time' were we all visited and continued singing and having a great time.  By the end of the night we most certainly had become part of the whanau, or family. 

 Sunday morning was our Farewell ceremony.  We sang some songs, shared breakfast, and were given a good by gift. 

This is the necklace we were given.  This is how it was described by Lucky, one of the great people who made us feel part of the whanau, "Pikoura' - the twist - is a symbol for eternity, interwoven spirits and lives. The pikoura or twist design with its criss cross form represents the many paths of life and love and as such is regarded as the original eternity symbol. The single twist design shows the joining together of two people. Even though they sometimes move away from each other on their own journeys, they will always come together again sharing their lives and blending to become one. It tells how the strength of a bond of friendship, loyalty, love and whanau (family) will last forever."

To sum up the weekend.