Byron H @ Greymouth High School

Start Tuia i runga Bind above Tuia i raro Bind below Tuia i whao Bind without Tuia i roto Bind within Tuia te here tangata Bind together the people Ka rongo te ao Plan for the day Ka rongo te po By looking to the past Tihei mauri ora! Behold the sneeze of life

New Zealand food: A Hangi is an old way of cooking food as done by the Maori people of Aotearoa (New Zealand) today and by their ancestors before them. Today a hangi is prepared for special occasions. Basically it involves cooking in the ground, though you can use more modern methods and prepare a hangi using special stainless steel technology. Both produce yummy food. They used to eat birds, roots leaves and fish. That was their source of food. In traditional life, New Zealand's Māori people were hunters, gatherers and crop farmers who harvested their food from the forest, stream, sea and garden.Seashells and crayfish were also harvested.Fresh seafood was usually cooked by laying the flesh on heated rocks. Shellfish were often eaten raw. They saved some of their fish most of the time to trade or eat later. They hung some of their sea food up to dry in the sun. Now days people just put it in the barbecue and cook them on it. They eat the same fish and enjoy the same mea...

We researched this on Punga. Punga is the God of sharks, lizard, rays and all things ugly. Punga is a son of Tangaroa, the god of the sea. All reptiles are believed to have descended from Punga. Lizards were believed to bring bad luck, however, they were also seen as guardians and were put near burial caves to watch over the dead. There are various tribal traditions about the identity of Punga. In most, he is the son of Tangaroa, the god of the sea. In other traditions, he was the eldest son of Whaitiri, the goddess of thunder, and her husband Kaitangata. Punga was named after the anchor stone of his father’s canoe. This was believed to woke the lizards and was like a maori telephone to the spiritual realm.

Tapu and Noa Tapu was one of the strongest forces in Maori life and had numerous meanings and references. Tapu can be interpreted as "sacred", and contains a strong imposition of rules and prohibitions. A person, object or place, which is tapu, may not be touched or even in some cases approached. For example, in earlier times, tribal members of a higher rank would not touch objects which belonged to members of a lower rank. Similarly, persons of a lower rank could not touch the belongings of a highborn person. Certain objects were particularly tapu, so much so that it was a dangerous act to even touch them, apart from suitably qualified priests. A breach of "tapu" could incur the wrath of the Gods and death was the penalty for serious infringements of Tapu. Noa, on the other hand, is the opposite to tapu and includes the concept of common. Noa also has the concept of a blessing in that it can lift the rules and prohibitions of tapu.It is worth making the point th...