May 15, 2008 – Auckland to Orewa
Weather: Mainly fine
Today we drove from Piha Beach back up to the Glen Eden (build site) suburb of Auckland and to the Baptist Church where the first of our welcome ceremonies were to be held. We met the current, past, future partner families, construction manager for the build, and a number of others that volunteer and work with the affiliate. A very large spread of food was laid out. Ra and his family sang some songs both in Mauri and English. A beautiful family that sings together very well.
From the lunch we went to the local Maori Marae. A Marae is the Maori’s ceremonial meeting house. Before leaving the Baptist Church we were instructed as to the proper protocol to follow during the Mauri welcoming ceremony. It is considered an honor to be invited to enter a Marae and we were very pleased that they gave us that invitation. We were told that we might or might not be invited to enter the Marae as the ceremony might be held outside on the green in front of the Marae or we might be invited inside. Eventually we were invited inside but the ceremony started as we were on the edge of the parking lot and in front of the large grassy area in front of the Marae. We followed Ra’s instructions and waited until a Maori woman chanted an invitation to come across the grassy area to the Marae. I had become the leader or “chief” of the tribe (Habitat group) and along with Ra went first with the others following. With Ra’s instructions we crossed to the entrance to the Marae and were invited to enter and of course we removed our shoes before entering. The Maori tribal representatives sat to the left of the entrance on cushions on the floor. The Habitat tribe sat on chairs to the right side of the entrance. The acting Maori chief began by giving a welcoming speech that Ra later explained told about how their tribe had come to NZ, about their ancestry, and about their achievements. Apparently since a lot of them had moved to that area of Auckland for work or other reasons from other tribes or ancestral lines they had joined together and became the tribe of the four winds.
The speech was in Maori as was the song that was sung next by the tribe. Ra gave a speech in Maori and then it was my turn. My speech was briefer but apparently acceptable after which we sang “This is the Day”. I then placed a small peace offering on the floor between us which completed the ceremony and we were accepted.
The Maori chief then gave us a tour of the Marae and the adjacent school grounds (K-12) of which they are rightfully very proud.
After the Maori welcome a tour had been arranged by the Auckland affiliate of a community of 32 residences called Earthsong. Adjectives such as Eco-Neighborhood, Permaculture, sustainability, and a touch of commune added in. The housing units are a variety of sizes for a variety of family size. The units are ecologically designed with solar heating of water, positioning to take the best advantage of the sun for heating during the changing seasons, etc. They have a website at www.earthsong.org.nz that we haven’t looked at yet but probably explains it well.
It was a well planned day for us Care-A-Vanners by the hosting affiliate. It was entertaining, educational, and very much appreciated by all of us.
The affiliate has had trouble getting the building permits issued for the build. The bureaucratic system here is apparently worse than ours. We mutually decided that the Care-A-Vanners would use the three days of travel we had planned at the end of the build now and then work right through to the end of the month.
After the Earthsong visit we drove up to Orewa from west Auckland. Orewa is on the north side of Auckland and is a Pacific beach town. We camped at the Top 10 campground at the south end of the beach.
A Habitat welcome lunch!
Ra and family.
It was a very good day.
Kiwi Word of the Day: Torch - Flashlight
No comments:
Post a Comment