My Marae Experience
On the first and second of May me and my class went for a class trip with room 5 to the Arahura Marae. We were studying the Marae. We were going there for our camp and to learn about our local marae. I am going to be telling you about a few things that we did at the marae. First I’m Going to tell you about the powhiri Process. Then second I will tell you about the food/kai and last but not least I will tell you about the wharenui and what it looked like and how cool it was.
The powhiri
The first thing we did at the marae was have the powhiri process. At first I was a bit Nervous because I thought there would be lots of people there but there wasn't, there was only four people there. Once I realised it was only four people there I wasn't that nervous. While we were at the gate we practised the waiata. After we practised the waiata the women did the karanga and we got called into the marae. Then we took our shoes off and the boys went into the marae and we waited for the girls to come before we sat down. After the girls came in we all sat down and then the men gave their speeches and we gave a gift to the tangata whenua/host(which was an envelope with money in it). It was a little hard not to laugh when everything went quiet (or at least a tiny giggle). I think I did one TINY giggle and a few others as well because this was a new experience.
The Kai
Another fun part or should I say yum part of the trip was the food. I really enjoyed the food/kai. For breakfast there was toast and cereal. I had a few pieces of toast and a little bowl of cornflakes and for morning tea the day before the was an AMAZING amount of food!! There was red velvet cake, pies and ginger slice(I think). They had an AMAZING range of pies. There was potato top pies, beef pies, chicken ect. The pies were SO good and meaty. To be honest I thought the food would have been like maori food or at least close to that. Miriama works really hard in the kitchen to make that amount of food in that amount of time.
Inside the wharenui
Inside of the wharenui was AMAZING!! Inside the marae there was lights on the spine and the ribs/heke. They were so cool!! Then there are the carvings, the best things that are inside of the marae. But the two
carvings that really attracted me were Hikatutae and the defender that made the waves to stop him. One of them had the shape of lake mahinapua carved into it. These two carvings relate to one of the battles that happened at Lake Mahinapua.
Over all I had such a good time. I loved the food. I loved the Inside with all the carvings and the lights. It was an AMAZING experience.
The end
By Jack
