oh my goodness... i have to do a mihi and sing a waiata in front of about 900 people tomorrow morning as a "welcome"or powhiri at my new school. It's a cool thing to experience, but it's also scary when you don't quite know what to do.
Oh well. When faced with difficult expectations one is better to face them and get them over and done with rather than worry and try to avoid them. In fact, now that i have received some assistance from the fabulous Miss Freeman and Heheboy I am actually feeling like it will be a cool thing to do.
I will take my Peachgrove waka huia to explain how we are bringing experience and knowledge with us and expecting to receive more knowledge and experience from the new school community.
Here is some of my mihi. Please offer advice or correction where you think necessary.
Tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa.
Ko David Woodcock toku ingoa.
Ko Susan Tucker toku mama.
Ko Eric Woodcock toku papa.
Ko Pirongia te maunga.
Ko Waikato te awa.
No Kirikiriroa ahau.
Then I will use the waka huia as a metaphor for our new beginning at Fairfield and the sharing of our collective knowledge, skills and wisdom [the last being debatable of course].
To finish I may share the words of the the Second Maori King, Matutaera Te Wherowhero Tawhiao:
"Kia hora te marino
Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana
Kia tere te Karohirohi
I mua I too huarahi"
May peace be widespread
May the sea glisten like greenstone
May the shimmer of light guide you on your way."
Tena koutou tena koutou katoa
15 comments:
Personally I really hate Mihis, we had to do that in our speech as well. talking about speech's I'm going to absolutely dred this years one:( (sorry of topic):)
By the way, awesome Mihi.
P.s can anyone guess who i am?
Mmmm...
I too personally don't like to do Mihi's.
Hey, all the best for the start of a new school - all the best with the mihi, Kia kaha!
Kia ora David, Pai to mihi. Engari...
Your blog has two things to consider
metahor or metaphor. no rationale just english language.
kaarohirohi to karohirohi. rationale being that you have not used mcarons but fluent speakers can see the right use of word.
@ Dreamchantress interesting to hear you say you dont like mihi, and you will dred doing one at school this year. Maybe other Maori teachers could help you be more confident.
@ Gaboose maybe Mr Woodcock could invite some teachers who do speak Maori at Fairfield to listen to yous do your mihi. Just a suggestion. Oh and another one is maybe you could vlog them so we can hear or even see them?
I hope it all goes well regardless. Kia kaha :D
Gaboose - it's well known you have a dislike for most things so i'll take your opinion with a grain of salt ;-)
As for no one understanding, that is incorrect. It is also a wonderful and unique language that is a sacred part of our belonging to this land. Te reo is to be valued and it's a really cool thing to be able to share in as New Zealander...
Thank you Horohoro for your comments - I agree that using ICT to share our mihi with the world would be a unique and wonderful way to interact with other learners and show respect for our culture whilst expanding our knowledge of more than one language. Everywhere else in the world, people speak multiple languages fluently. In NZ we are so isolated that we are largely ignorant of how others converse. I feel we are the poorer for it.
I find Mihid very, very interesting. In fact, I dissagree with Dreamy and Gaboose. However, I also like the Peachgrove hat, wearinhg USBs and so on, so maybe I'm simply Dreamys opposite.
Lol Gaboose, I like ur comment.
I really don't see the point of saying something in a language that you don't understand. I think that its best to familiarise your self with the language and enjoy using it.Spanish is better.
3=0P
So, how's life peoples? ( at fairfeild).
So, how's life peoples? ( at fairfeild).
Fairfield is great!=)
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