Survival stories, feasts in the forest, and Stan Walker's cuzzy 🌞🐬🦈
Kia ora e te whānau,
Te Arawhata is back for 2024! Nau mai, hoki mai and a huge mihi o te tau hou Pākehā ki a koutou/Happy Pākehā new year to you all.
This raumati/summer, we’ve really noticed a general lifting of wairua/spirits around us—the kind that can only come from having time in the sun, a puku nurtured with BBQ, and the freedom to spend all day in a sarong.
I tēnei wiki/this week many of us officially return to our workplaces, heoi it’s not the end of the long days e te whānau, nō reira i tēnei rā/today our kaupapa celebrates raumati.
We hope these picks inspire you to keep the summer vibes rolling and set the tone for a fun new year full of great things including a whole lot of enjoying, learning about, and connecting with Māori culture.
“Tamanui te rā! One outs would be mean but you must listen! If you do not listen then I must make you!”
- Māui confronts Tamanui te rā
It’s ‘Māui and the Sun’ as you’ve never seen before.
Māui Studios, a Māori creative production studio in Otautahi, have painted a bright new (ancient) world for this legend that encompasses all of its epic adventure, mātauranga/wisdom, and star character’s cheek, and moved it from it’s historically dusty library shelf to sit alongside ‘Marvel Comics’ and ‘Dune’ as a graphic novel.
With te reo Māori, te reo Pākehā, digital, and physical versions, this kōmeke/comic is incredibly exciting for those of us over the age of 20 and totally expected for the tamariki of today who never questioned it’s place.
Created the tika/correct way over many cups of tī/tea with mana whenua, it’s just one example of Māui Studio’s mīharo/awesome projects to help audiences strengthen their connection with Māori culture.
Find it: on the Māui Studios website
Time: from a 5 min scan to an hour long language learning session
Cost: free for the digital versions
“We had two or three bags of kina, I said to the guys, I said—Hey out of respect we’ll give this back to Tangaroa, we’ll give it back to Tangaroa and ask him for our mate back.”
- Rob Hewitt recounts important steps on a rescue mission.
In 2016, Rob Hewitt was caught in a rip while diving for kōura/crayfish and spent four days and three nights drifting in the moana before being rescued.
Years later, he’s horrified when his mate doesn’t surface where expected. The friend has also been taken by a current and is watching the boat grow smaller and smaller as he drifts away…
These cautionary tales are fairly horrific hooks in ‘Te Waiora’, a documentary series exploring the deep connection Māori have with water—but it’s not all doom and gloom.
Through stunning underwater footage and considered words we experience the beauty of diving, an activity, long-practised by Māori, and learn more about our important relationship with Tangaroa.
By the end it’ll make sense why they keep going back and you’ll have a few more safety tips up your wetty sleeve.
Find it: on youtube
Time: 12 mins
Cost: free
“Tū Te Rā celebrates the abundant harvest of this season, and explores concepts, rituals, and stories of ancient Māori warfare and peace in a feast of culture and cuisine.”
- a sum up from the Tū Te Rā website
The Tū Te Rā Summer Harvest Celebration is a dining experience showcasing Māori culture in a stunning forest-formed amphitheatre in Rotorua.
Guests are welcomed with kai horotai/morsels of seasonal favourites and kawakawa tea before stories (like how we can see Tānerore dancing for his Māmā, Hine Raumati, through the shimmers of a hot day) are shared through haka, song, and drama.
Finally comes the main kai…
A ‘kindred’ menu is led by Māori executive chef, Irihei Walker, and inspired by his chef team who whakapapa to Fiji, the Philippines, India, China, and Scotland. Each chef has whipped up a one-of-a-kind fusion dish, mixing the flavors, delicacies, and cooking styles of their own cultural roots with those of Māori.
The results are a delicious, forward thinking, past-informed ode to Māori kai and a celebration of its international relevance.
Find it: on the Te Pā Tū website
Time: 4 hours
Cost: from $260
"Where the sunshine kisses the water, we will find it always, Summertime in Aotearoa.”
- lyrics from the waiata, ‘Summertime in Aotearoa’
This band’s chart-topping song, ‘Blue-eyed Māori’ held number one for an impressive 17 weeks. Their tracks, ‘Summertime in Aotearoa’ and ‘Raumati’ also scream ‘beach day’.
For Corrella's lead singer and cultural advisor, Pipiwharauroa Campbell, music runs in the family.
While many of us throw the claim, in this case we’re pretty sure it’s true; Pipiwharauroa is Australian Idol sensation, Stan Walker’s cousin.
His grandmother, Raukatauri Campbell or ‘Nanny Rau’ was also a talented singer who guided him toward a life of music and inspired his deep love for it.
After feeling pressure to turn away from his cultural roots during his early years in the navy, Pipiwharauroa would lean on this love for music to navigate and express his return journey. Nō reira/And so, ngā mihi ki a Nanny Rau!
Find them: on spotify
Time: they have an hour or so of waiata so far
Cost: free with your account
As always, we hope you’re finishing this newsy feeling a little closer to te ao Māori and like you have something fun lined up for the week ahead.
We’ll catch you again next week with 4 picks to help you kick off the year on a healthy note. We hope you enjoy some kaukau/swims, aihiparaka/ice blocks, and hihi/sun rays in the meantime.
Nā,
Liz, Han, & Grace from Te Arawhata
