NZ Histories PLD - Part 2

 



Image by kewl from Pixabay 


More stories... (yay)... 

This time about... 

Nga Tupuna - Ancestors 

- Tāwhaki was hurt and buried by jealous relatives but came up again and with the help of his wife was healed/restored. Ponaturi (sea faries) capture his parents, kill his father and enslave his mother. Tāwhaki and his brother, Karihi, search for their parents, find their grandmother, trick the Ponaturi and rescue their mother. 

Some stories say that Tāwhaki's great bravery and beauty attract Tangotango, a magical woman from the heavens, and she makes nightly visits to him and becomes his wife. When their daughter is born, Tangotango asks Tāwhaki to wash the baby, even though it is normally the role of mother to wash a daughter. Tāwhaki says the baby smells which is an insult and Tangotango goes back up to the heavens with their daughter.  Tāwhiki then goes through difficulties to ascend to the heavens. He pretends to be a slave working for his wife's brothers by carrying their axes and then secretly helping them build a waka. His wife realises that he is not a slave, but her husband. Tāwhaki has a second chance to wash the baby and this time does it correctly. 

While in the heavens the god, Tama-i-waho, teaches Tāwhaki many important things which he then passes down.  Tāwhaki covets Tama-i-waho's many dogs, trying to stop himself, but stealing one anyway. Then he is found out and confronted by Tama-i-waho, who says he should have asked for one. 

This epasode in Tāwhaki's life particularly interests me. It speaks of Tāwhaki recognising that coveting the dog is wrong, yet he seems unable to do what he knows is right. Then the solution is to ask and receive a gift rather than to try and take it for himself.

Again the author reminds us that stories carry values - they teach us, they to reveal what is treasured within a culture, what is helpful and what is distasteful or abhorred. 

I'm reminded from communications theory that there is both a sender (the storyteller) the receiver (the listener) and noise (anything that gets in the way of the communication). The key messages and values from these stories come through the filter of the storyteller, and enter the listener through their own perceptive grid... their prior knowledge and experiences. It is important for me to remember that - I might take things from these stories that are not necessarily intended.

The students, with whom we share these stories, may observe and interpret things of which we are unaware. 

I'm also reminded that the method of communication is in itself part of the message. I receive these stories differently because I'm reading them in a text book, compared to hearing them orally. The same goes for our students. 

Let the learning continue... 



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