Traditional Forms of Maori Learning Retrieved from
Three Baskets of Knowledge
Stones
Formality
Informality
Basket of ritual and incantation
Basket of Good
Karakia
Going into meditation/chanting/praying
Safety
Good Health
Basket of Evil
Wananga - Knowledge
Whare is a house where knowledge is shared and taught
Reflection
Understanding what is going on around you
Using the understandings to further the aspirations of those to whom the person belongs
Noun: The house where the teaching of sacred knowledge was taught.
Verb: To debate and deliberate. Asking questions so that students were conversant with what was being taught
You learn just as much informally as you do formally
People bring certain skills. It is a group who teaches.
Symbolic and physical representation of knowledge and learning
The teaching of sacred knowledge
The teaching of esoteric knowledge
Specifically reserved for those with Mana
No specific place to wananga
The most important part of their learning was to do with the Gods
Whakapapa of the Gods
Whakapapa of the people
The purpose of the Whare Wanaga
The knowledge of 'education' was taught around the Marae
A physical way of teaching the young people
Survival
Fish
Snare birds
Collect flax
Tend gardens
Taught by the elders predominantely
Social
Cultural
Human
Student < Tauonga < Tipuna
Selected students - Geneology based. Innate talents. Elite.
Teaching of exoteric knowledge
Studied from Autumn, age 6 - 17 approx.
Rote learning method
Oral tradition. Able to quote almost parrot like.
Then became the tauonga of their tribes
Chosen to the be the caretakers of the history of their people
Needed to know the tribal history
You could not make a mistake
One of the greatest things that could happen to that person
Specific Rituals and Practices
Traditional ways of teacing
Repetition and Rote learning
Explain who the people were
Done in the dark - would stop at sunrise
Student was expected to catch all of the information
A student could leave after the course, but could not pass on any of that information. To do that would be a sure sign of death. You only share that information when you were invited to do so.
A teaching aide to ensure the student would always be alert?
There is some knowledge that is so heavy that it should not be passed on. It is too much of a burden.
Hugely different to how we learn today
No longer the dominant populous
We've had to adapt and modify how we live
We couldn't go back to that time.
Our sustainability as Maori
Ensure solidarity as a people
Determining what success means to us
It is too difficult to replicate what they did
How do we take those methodologies and replicate them for our people?
What is Oral History?
Being able to recite information
Korero
Whakapapa: Knowing who you were, where you came from.
Waiata
Karakia
You walked around carrying that knowledge with you.
A manner in which those things that were considered important to survival of mankind was handed down verbally
Pen and paper came with the arrival of Paheka. Gave certainty of not making a mistake - but they were still made.
Maintanence of culture based on discussions and art forms
Carvings
Po
Weaving
Tukutuku panels
Spiritual
Conceptual
Kpwhaiwhai Patterns
Conceptualise philosophies and knowledge of our people
Traditional waiata were sung in monotone. The voice of the kuia. Sounds like wind. Expressed the cry of the composer (or anger when it became a haka). It became their repository of perpetuating a thought, an event, a loss. Calendars of events of the past.
Whakatauki
The environment - [physical, symbolic and mental
The Tensions
The People
The symbols that each iwi or area projects to use as indicators of how we hold onto what is dear to us.
You look to the past to retain your present and give you the pathway to the future
Remding us of certain decisions and values. Words of wisdom
Capturing status, iwi property
Tells about the niceties and pitfalls of life
No word in Maori is ever wasted
Whai Korero
Each speaker should have something to add to anothers speech that will bring value, impetus and knowledge to those who are there listening to it.
Bondage and commitment, but not the responsibility. The most important link.
Kapa Haka
Multi-layered learning: Retention of knowledge through the words of the waiata; Entertainment to learning, understanding and maintenance of those songs; Pursuit of Excellence.
Learner > Teacher cycle. You want other people to learn it too. Part of what you can share. Support others.
Community spirit, solidarity, kotahitanga. Takes us away from the mundaine aspects of working and living to doing an activity for a common mission and common cause. Mobilised and motivates a common goal.
Myths and Legends
The most important stories. They tell us those things that we do not understand.
To create once again through the process of the maggot.
Each pillar identifies a particular ancestor and the relationship between each of them.
Key Aspects of Maori Learning
The essence of learning by doing
Mahi Ora: Cater for the diverse nature of learners: Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic, Written and Reading learner
Diverse solutions for diverse learners
Whakarongo, Titiro, Korero
The imagery that they were presented with to support Oral Histories
People were all taught different things. Learnt by doing, by watching and by doing. As opposed to the theory.
Kite and Rongo
The physical senses in Maori - Only two. Kite - See, Rongo is to hear, taste, smell and hear.
If a person has control of those two senses then the world is wide open to them.
Ako: Learning and teaching.
The senses are fully involved.
Knowledge came from knowing the environment they were a part of.
Formal and informal learning
The sea, the winds, the seasons
Healing properties of plants
Cyclic in connection
Personal Learning Experiences
Great teachers in their own right
Focus on understanding: Learn the pronunciation, learn the meaning, put actions to it.
What you hear in absolute concentration is sent up to the brain. Sometimes you can recall it when required, sometimes you will recall it 50 years later.
Transmission of knowledge
Ako Whakatere
Accelerated learning
Diverse approach
Catered for the learner who was not good at reading and writing, but was good at speaking and listening
Experience gained from success
Get in there and do it. Learning by doing.
Make mistakes but have people there to guide you through those mistakes
Pragmatic, practical, solutions orientated
The attitudes the tutors brought to learning
The hidden recesses in the human mind
Suggestipedia
Relaxation techniques
Use of the 5 senses
Use of tones that resonates in the whare.
Alpha
Beta
Delta
Gamma
Theta
We need to create atmospheres where you have quiet and peace - conducive to learning
Knowing the best times of the day to learn. When the mind is settled and fresh.
They knew how to treat people to bring the best out of them
Historically there was no need to accelerate as they had all the time in the world. It was about the depth of knowledge
A deeper impact than the types of learning provided at school - rote learning and homework
The Spirit of Knowledge
Learning is a life long pursuit and experience.
The pursuit of knowledge as the accumulation of facts picked up along the way
Knowledge is transformed into wisdom