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“Ma tini ma mano ka rapa te whai”

Many hands make light work

This week’s whakatāuki is explained by Meihana Durie nō Rangitane, Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Raukawa, Rangitane, Ngāti Pōrou, Rongowhakaata, Ngai Tahu.

Ethnobotany is the science that looks at the relationships between people and plants and if there is a single body of work that encapsulates that within New Zealand, it is the groundbreaking Waitangi Tribunal Claim Wai 262 also known as the Flora and Fauna Claim.  Saana Murray (1926 – 2011) will always be associated with the claim that took 20 years to complete.  In Te Ahi Kaa, three years before her and five others were to create a historical precedent we have an archival recording of her speaking at the Ethnobotany Nga mahi Māori o Te Wao nui a Tane hui held at Rehua Marae, Christchurch in 1988.  

Marilynn WebbPrint maker Marilynn Webb (right) was gobsmacked when she received a call that she was a recipient of a 2011 Taa Kingi Ihaka Award recognising her artistic contribution to Te Ao Māori.  She talks about her blissful childhood in Opotiki, teaching career, tutelage under Gordon Tovey (1901-1974) and being at the cusp of Māori Art and Craft within the education curriculum during the 1960’s and 1970’s.    

With musical influences ranging from Kenny G to Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise what is Ngāti Pōrou Seth Haapu doing singing Indie-pop?

Waiata featured: Keeping Count, Final Destination, Battery, Fingertips and Bones  performed by Seth Haapu from the album Seth Haapu (2011), an acoustic version of Keeping Count performed by Seth Haapu recorded in the Auckland Radio New Zealand Studio September 09, 2011.