It was Wednesday 6th of April and the whole of the senior syndicate took a journey to the Orakei marae (Ngati Whatua) because we were learning about Whanaungatanga. Out of all the maraes we chose this beautiful one that we adored a lot.
When we arrived at the marae I couldn’t stop smiling but I did. We hopped off the bus and into the whare kai (eating house) and we sat there until we were given permission to enter the atea (sacred courtyard). When we did, Whaea Celeste welcomed us in with a Karanga (welcoming call) and Khylie answered back with a Kai Karanga (calling reply). The whole senior syndicate marched inside the whare nui (meeting house) peacefully, but before that we took our shoes off.
So we entered the whare nui or whare tupuna and we sat there whilst Matua William was telling us the rules and the histories behind the maraes. I reckoned it was really cool that we went to Whaea Whetu’s family marae, and I really enjoyed listening to Matua William.
After all that explaining we had morning tea, but it was pretty short.
Whaea Celeste taught the girls a poi dance while Matua William taught the boys a haka that they already knew. The girls did well because we had never learnt our dance before.
After we performed our performances, we had lunch and then we sang some more songs.
At the end of the day we were tired but so happy that we made it to the marae. It was so worth paying for. I learnt a lot of things like the carvings on the whare has stories behind them and I learnt lots more too.
