Exploring Pūrākau: Māori legends...

 

On a quest to further support and grow children's oral language and literacy learning we have been exploring pūrākau with the tamariki at Bream Bay Kindergarten.

"Pūrākau, or storytelling, is an ancient form not just of transmitting ideas but of creating shared meaning and thus identity" (Stansfield, 2020).

To help jumpstart our journey into exploring pūrākau we started with reading the beautiful pukapuka ‘In the Beginning’ by Peter Gossage. Accompanying this book the teachers made story stones of the atua featuring in the story. The tamariki absolutely loved reading about the atua, their guardianship and using the story stones to read and play with.

“Children experience an environment where they experience the stories and symbols of their own and other cultures. Over time and with guidance and encouragement, children become increasingly capable of enjoying hearing stories and retelling and creating them” 

(Te Whāriki, 2017).

The interest in the story stones had been huge and the tamariki wanted to start drawing the atua themselves, expressing their ideas and thoughts using numerous mediums. They put pens and paint to paper… 

“As well as being a powerful form of communication and cultural expression, the arts has the potential to contribute to learning in many other ways” 
(Te Whāriki Online).

We are continuing with our exploration into pūrākau and after reading the pukapuka ‘In the Beginning’, the tamariki made props of the atua featuring in the book. The tamariki helped trace, paint and stabilize the child sized atua before they were ready to be used.

During the process to create the atua there was a lot of discussions around the differences, what they do, what people thought of them and other theories about them.

Once the atua was cut out and ready to go, we set them up outside for the children to explore. They were so excited to use them as props, it was a great opportunity for role playing and continual communication between peers. 

“Children experience an environment where they discover different ways to be creative and expressive.  Over time and with guidance and                          encouragement, children become increasingly capable of expressing their feelings and ideas using a wide range of materials and modes”        
(Te Whāriki, 2017).

 

The pukapuka, ‘Nga Taonga o Tatou Atua Wahine – The Treasures of our Female Gods’, Author: Karlene Nesbit, Illustrator: Miriama Rose Kaimarama was then discovered by the tamariki. This lead into another pukapuka to explore and learn from.

Another beautiful pukapuka about atua but this time about wahine. What is especially fantastic about this book is that the author Karlene is the head teacher of Selwyn Kindergarten in Dargaville.

The tamariki have also immensely enjoyed reading this book. The tamariki used their wonderful artist skills to create story sticks so that everyone can enjoy their beautiful mahi.

Papatūānuku is the earth mother, with Ranginui they had many sons. Some of the sons wanted there to be light so push them apart.

Hineahuone is the first atua wahine. She was created out of clay by Tāne Mahuta and was able to start to give life to humans.

Hine-rauwhārangi makes us grow strong and healthy.

Hine-moana looks after the sea creatures. She calms the stormy waters.

Hine Raumati delivers warmth and sunshine. She is the wife of                  Tama-nui-te-rā.

Hine-teuira is the lightening wahine.

Hine-takurua is the atua wahine of winter and helps grow sea creatures.

Hine-nui-te-pō is the atua wahine of darkness. She helps guide us to find out tupuna.

“Children experience an environment where they experience the stories and symbols of their own and other cultures. Over time and with guidance and encouragement, children become  increasingly capable of recognising print symbols and concepts and using them with enjoyment, meaning and purpose.”

-Te Whāriki, 2017

 We were then gifted the beautiful pukapuka 'Atua', by Gavin Bishop from Julia as a thanks for being a student teacher at kindergarten (who is now a permanent teacher at BBK).

What an stunning book with beautiful illustrations and lots of knowledge to store in our kete.

Thank you Julia!

As the work around atua continued and the interest soared, there was a noticeable difference in conversations with and between children. The children's ideas and thoughts around atua have extended into everyday play, observations and conversations, becoming engrained into the culture at kindergarten.

Arohanui, Lauren.