Year 5 had a fantastic trip - Auckland Museum

Turangawaewae - Our Place to Stand - Where we belong

Year 5 Museum Trip 2019

Check out our Museum Trip photo album (link above). We were amazed by the new learning, connections and interesting information we gained during our visit to our Auckland Museum.

As part of our Turangawaewae learning, we used our prior knowledge and new learning to forge deeper into our understanding of who we are, where we come from and what it means to be a New Zealander. This was enriched by the history of how New Zealand came to be settled 800 years ago by Polynesian explorers. It turns out that Kupe's wife, Kuramarotini, was the first to see New Zealand by seeing the North Island under a long white cloud. She devised the name of Ao-tea-roa ('long white cloud'). Women were known as talented navigators and sailors too. The settlers born in New Zealand were our first Maori - endemic to New Zealand.

We learned that the moa, while massive in stature, was a bird that was easily scared and chased off. The early settlers were clever in trapping these large food sources by driving them into swamps where they were easily captured. Their extinction was due to the popularity of their meat and feathers.

The early iPhones of old consisted of drumming messages to make community announcements. We learned how to 'drum' a gigantic drum of hollow wood with our hands. The code of drumming was the responsibility of a village family that would pass that skill and knowledge down through the generations.

The Pacific instruments were made of natural materials and skillfully played through mouthpieces like a flute. We were invited to follow the rhythm of the lead drummer to feel the beats of the Pacific.
Many cultures have their own 'beat of the drum' - Pacific, African, Chinese and Carribean nations to name a few. Does your heritage have a beat?

Maori people see their marae as turangawaewae - their place to stand and belong. The marae is used for meetings, celebrations, funerals and educational workshops. The wharenui is central to the marae. The tukutuku panels in the wharenui were especially interesting as Mr T expanded our understanding of this ancient art form. The panels tell stories from one generation of ancestors to another. The panel of enlightenment was presented in the form of parallel steps zigzagging upward. The story being that in life, we go from one lesson to another, climbing through adversity to a new level of competence and understanding to a higher level. We travel the road of life and adversity together (the parallel patterns), not on our own. We saw the connections to our Sunnyhills Learning Pit where we go along our Learning Pathway together, but individually. When we strike the Learning Pit we have support around us to help us through.

We had a wonderful trip with lots of information to unpack when we return to class. Thank you to our wonderful parent helpers for supporting our learning outside the classroom.