Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/connections-between-children-nature-and-culture/5022457/
Tēnā koutou katoa! — Greetings to you all!
Recently I had the privilege of attending the World Forum Foundation’s Working Forum on Designing Inspiring and Effective Spaces for Children in Rotorua Aotearoa /New Zealand. At the Working Forum I was placed in the Māhoe group working on the design for the MOCCA Centre in Canberra, Australia. Each working group was named after a native New Zealand tree, and I was pleased to be able to share some knowledge about the Māhoe tree — Mā meaning white in Te Reo Māori and hoe meaning an oar. Māhoe wood was traditionally used by Māori for making oars. This knowledge was shared with me by our local Department of Conservation Ranger, who has come on a number of nature walks with our preschool.
Talking about oars led me to share a whakatauki — or traditional Māori proverb, an integral part of Māori culture often used to sum up a situation or to set the scene for shared work within a group. The whakatauki was “He waka eke noa” —”We are all in this canoe together” — a very apt proverb for ...