Wednesday 1 August 2007

A Maori Evening

I had a very interesting evening at a Māori village and learned how to do the haka.

I thought the haka was a war dance done by the New Zealand Rugby team, but the Māori also do hakas for entertainment and recreation - and women do them as well!



Here I am sitting by a Māori sculpture. The Māori are the people who came to live here from many islands in the Pacific Ocean - they were they first settlers in New Zealand.



Lots of names and places in New Zealand have Māori origins - in fact, New Zealand itself has a Māori name! I will give a prize to the first pupil who can tell me what it is and what it means! Get commenting!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Oscar new zealands name in maori is Aotearoa and it means. Land of long white cloud

Oscar said...

Well done, Izzy! That's exactly right and you were the first person to get it!