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| The genealogy of Ranginui and Papatūānuku- source: Enviroschools |
What plants are we kaitiaki (guardians) of in our community? Where do they belong within Te Ao Māori-the Māori world?
Māori stories tell that when Tānemāhuta separated Ranginui and Papatūānuku, his brothers Rongo and Haumia hid from Tāwhirimatea's rage underneath Papatūānuku's earthly cloak. As they emerged, they became the gods of uncultivated foods (Haumiatiketike) and cultivated foods (Rongomātāne).
Tāne is the god of all trees and plants, and the birds are his very special children. Some stories tell how Rongo taught people how to grow food in gardens, like kūmara. Haumia showed how to find wild food for medicine, like kawakawa, and gather the roots of ferns in winter when other foods were hard to find.
We have been looking around our kura (school) at the plants that we can identify that belong to Tāne, Rongo and Haumia.
We are building a map of these different plants around our motu (area).
We have been collecting information about the different plants and mapping them within our community. Today we went to the beach to observe the plants as well. We also found some interesting tiny creatures in this habitat.
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