Myths and Legends

We wrote our own Myths and Legends and then designed book covers for them.

The rest of our great banners...

Olympic banners

(Top) Winner of the year 10 Olympic banner competition - Brandon and Krishna
(Bottom) Winner of the yer 9 banner competition - Mandeep and Raena

Tylah's Myth

How Te Whakaraueka Found Communication

Many, many years ago a boy called Te Whakaraueka wondered how the Gods knew something was going to happen without talking face to face to people. So he asked the people around him, they whispered “I have no idea, go ask Tanewharaheka, the god of the trees and birds. He knows everything that happens, he will ask the ancestors if he doesn’t.  You will find him in his tree hole,  he doesn’t ever leave it so call to him when you find the biggest tree in the forest”.  So Te Whakaraueka wondered off into the forest excitedly.

 He ran into the forest and saw heaps of birds flying in the blue sky, they looked like little stars floating across the sky. Te Whakaraueka got distracted looking at the little birds and ran straight into a huge tree. It was the biggest tree in the forest and when he looked up he saw the tree hole that Tanewharaheka lived in and he thought to himself ‘Am I here?’.  He called out “TANEWHARAHEKA, the God of the trees and birds, are you there?” he waited and waited then all of a sudden he heard the birds chirping loudly and going from tree to tree until all of a sudden they came to this tree and instantly it went as quiet as a library. Soon he heard “WHO DARE COMES TO MY TREE?” Te Whakaraueka yelled “ITS ME, TE WHAKARAUEKA!! I need to ask you something”. He went up and saw Tanewharaheka, he popped his head out of the hole and he asked “How do you communicate between all of the Gods without coming out of your home or sending notes?” Tanewharaheka whispered “We talk with birds, I yell out or think something and the birds pass it on to each other until it gets to the God I want it to go to, we can all communicate this way. You  just think something and it will be taken to the God you want it to go to”  Te Whakaraueka was happy with this and thanked him and went back to his village to share with his people.

He went running in the forest and got caught in a net and wondered what he was going to do. He tried cutting the rope but realised that the rope was too thick, it was as strong as concrete. He thought to himself ‘should I scream…no because then people may come and eat me’ so he thought again  ‘ I wonder if the chant works and he said it in his head, KARANGA MAI RA KARANAGA MAI RA, send me help; birds, trees, animals, any creatures God, please help!’ Within two minutes there were birds chirping and soon the solid rope came apart, after 15 minutes he was free, “Thank you Tanewharaheka, if you didn’t show me how to communicate without words, I would still be caught in that rope and I would have died.”          

Raena's Myth

Battle for Love

Many years ago in a small village there lived a beautiful goddess named Mahenirangi, she was the daughter of one of the powerful gods.  His name was Tu, the god of war. She was the most gorgeous girl out of her whole village.  Her eyes were as colorful as the sunset, her smile was as bright as the moonlight, her hair was as wavy as the sea.  Every single boy that Mahenirangi had dated her father wouldn’t approve of.

 So one night, when her father had fallen to sleep Mahenirangi went for a walk underneath the gloomy stars to look for someone that her father would approve of to marry her,  his beautiful daughter.  Mahenirangi came towards a pathway leading to the sea so she found the path and heard noises coming closer toward her.  Mahenirangi thought it was just animals playing in the sea, but it wasn’t it was a boy swimming in the sea with dolphins.  Mahenirangi quickly ran behind a bush, so that he wouldn’t see her watching him swim with the dolphins.  When he turned around he knew someone was watching him, so he came out of the sea.  He started walking towards the forest, Mahenirangi didn’t know where he was going until he stopped to help a baby kiwi look for his family.  The kiwi kept calling out to his family until they stopped by a cave. They heard the mother kiwi crying so he let the baby kiwi go and it walked in.  Mahenirangi quickly ran behind the tree because he turned around. He then quickly climbed the tree so couldn’t find him.  Mahenirangi turned around and didn’t see him so she walked back.  Mahenirangi didn’t know what way she came, so he came down and helped her find the way to the sea.  Mahenirangi was so happy to find her way back, but she still didn’t know his name.  When they stopped by the sea Mahenirangi asked him for his name.  Mahenirangi asked him for his name.  He said “Maui the son of Tangoroa, the God of the sea”.  Mahenirangi knew that her father wouldn’t approve of them dating so she walked away.  Maui didn’t want Mahenirangi to go so he ran after her.  Mahenirangi didn’t know what to say to Maui but bye.  The sun started to rise.  Mahenirangi turned around to take one more look at Maui but he had disappeared into thin air like magic. 

When Mahenirangi got back to her village all she could think about was Maui.  When her father woke up he knew she was hiding something from him and when the sun had set and it was all dark he followed Mahenirangi and knew that she found the pathway to the sea, but when they got there Maui never showed.

Two days later Mahenirangi had given up on trying to see Maui again.  Mahenirangi heard her father talking to Tane, the God of the forest about Maui’s father Tangaroa.  Mahenirangi heard her father say that he was going to get pay back for what he did to the village and for killing his wife.  Tane told him that Mahenirangi was listening so he told his guards to take her away so that she would not run away and tell Maui about the war that they were going to start.  Mahenirangi used her strength to get away and quickly ran to the sea and called Tangaroa and when he showed up she told him all about the war that was going to happen in the morning that her father had planned.  Tangaroa got all of the men from another village and told them to say good bye to their families because they were going to war with Tane.  Tanagroa asked his brother Tawhiri for help to make it rain so his waves could be more powerful than ever.  Mahenirangi knew that she was going to die, so she called Maui to day goodbye.  Maui showed up and didn’t know what to say, but I love you.  Mahenirangi started crying because she knew that she wouldn’t survive the war.  Maui and Mahenirangi held each other for the very last time. 

The sun rose and the war started.  Tangaroa created a huge tidal wave and killed everyone that lived on land.  Maui couldn’t take it, so he killed himself in order to stay with Mahenirangi.  All she could think about when she died was Maui and how they were going to stay together forever up in heaven.  The war continued until there was nothing left on earth.

 

Mark's Legend

How Maui taught his brother about Mana

A long time ago the people weren’t proud of their culture and where they came from and they weren’t happy with their whakapapa.

There was a young boy called Maui that lived in the village. He was proud of his ancestors and he was as strong as a warrior. Maui prized his past. He sang songs and dedicated his Haka to his ancestors. His Haka was as intimidating as Maori warriors at war.

One of his brothers was jealous because Maui was proud of his ancestors and he wasn’t, he tried to kill Maui’s ancestors by killing the things they had created. He started chaos between Maui’s family and his ancestors. Maui was so mad because his brother had messed up their rituals and tradition’s, he had thrown all the hangi rocks away so they couldn’t cook their food in the traditional way.

 Slowly Maui felt all that his culture stood for was dying and Maui knew he had to try and keep his culture alive so his ancestors could live on in him. Maui shouted at his brother and told him it was all about Mana.

Maui’s brother felt bad after that because he realised that Maui was right so he made peace with Maui and together they fixed all the things that their ancestors had given them that Maui’s brother had destroyed and all the evil spirits left Maui’s brother because he had found his Mana again.

The end is near.....

As we the end of term 4 is coming to an end I can say the students in C16 have worked hard over the latter part of the year and a summer holiday is well deserved.  In term 3 we looked at the Olympics amd Paralympics. We celebrated the success of ourNZ Olympic team by writing congratulatory letters to our Olympians, making sure we used the correct letter format, and we also did a variety of other writing and reading activites.  We ended term 3 with a banner competition. Students worked in pairs to create a banner that showed our pride in our NZ Olympians, they had a range of success criteria that they had to meet and they all did a great job and let their creativity flow to create some fantastic banners.  There was also a prize for the best banners in each year group and in yr 9 Mandeep and Raena cleaned up with their fantastic hand drawn banner and in yr 10 Brandon and Krishna won, they integrated some London landmarks in amongst the Kiwiana theme and did an awsome job.  The competition was fierce though and the 3 judges had their work cut out for them!   This term we have been looking at Myths and Legends, we asked the big question 'What is the purpose of Myths and Legends and how important are they to cultural groups?'. The yr 9's focus was creativity myths and the yr 10's was Maori and Aborigine myths and legends.  We also looked at story elements and the students had a turn at writing their own myths and legends and then creatiing a book cover.  These were then shared among staff who read and evualted them, I was impressed with the creativity that students displayed and loved reading these.
Huge thanks to Mrs Luxford and Mrs Karl who work alongside us in C16 for all the support and care you have shown myself and the students of 9TG and 10TG. 
Overall we have had a busy two terms and students have had success whether it be in writiing, reading or creating static images and book covers, students have been given every opportuntiy to be successful and they all have been in some way.  Well done 9TG and 10TG, I am proud of you all, keep safe in the holidays and find a minute to read....it really won't hurt you :o)