Learning experience 7, Activity 1: Stories of Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga Ngā pakiwaitara a Māui-tikitiki-a-taranga
Intended outcome(s)
The students could:
- develop a range of creative movement skills in kanikani (dance) (HPE 1 B1)
- initiate and express dance ideas based on selected stories about Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga (Dance 1–3 UC DI)
- share movement and dance through informal and/or formal presentation (Dance 1–4 CI)
- respond personally to their own and others' dances in written and/or verbal forms (Dance 1–4 CI)
- explore and respond to the elements and expressive qualities of music through listening, moving, and chanting (Music 1–4 PK UC)
- perform a dance about Maui for an audience and reflect upon this experience (Dance 3–4 CI)
- use choreographic devices to create a dance about Maui (Dance 4 DI)
Suggested approach
To gain understanding about Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga and to build a profile of his character, the students can:
- listen to stories about the hero and identify the main characteristics of Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga, for example, a trickster, cunning, playful, breaker of tapu (sacred, forbidden), clever, curious, powerful, entertaining, funny, good with his hands
- look at and discuss paintings and carvings depicting Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga in both customary and contemporary Māori art
- listen to songs and chants about the exploits of Māui in both customary and contemporary Māori music.
The students could discuss Māui's status as the youngest of five brothers and how this affects his behaviour in the different stories. The students discuss this in relation to their own sibling relationships.
How Māui made the sun slow down Te hopu a Māui i a te Rā
Help the students discuss what they know about the rising and the setting of the sun (see also: http://www.learningmedia.co.nz/nz/online/ednow/ednow5/view?
searchterm=day%20and%20night) and/or present the whakapapa (history and protocols) of the sun.
The students listen to the story of How Māui Slowed the Sun – Te Hopu a Māui i a te Rā (or the Ready to Read book Māui and the Sun and its translation in Māori, Ko Māui me te Rā) and listen to/learn 'Whiti te Rā', the song about the sun by Hirini Melbourne.
Help the students break down the story into main events:
- the fast rising of the sun, its fast travel across the sky, and its fast setting
- the daily activities of a whānau (family group) – fishing, cooking, playing games – which are seldom completed because of the short days and nights
- Māui and his brothers planning the sun's capture
- Māui and his brothers travelling to the cave of the sun through different environments – across open land, hacking through forests, up and down hills, crossing rivers, climbing over obstacles
- the gathering and weaving of harakeke (flax) (over, under, around, through, between) into stout ropes to catch the sun
- Māui and his brothers throwing the rope with its noose over the sun and hauling on the ropes
- Māui beating the sun, and the sun cringing and begging for mercy
- the slow rising of the vanquished sun, its slow travel across the sky, and its slow setting.
Help the students explore movement ideas inspired by these main events.
Level 2–4
In groups of three to four, the students create a dance or sequence that portrays a part of the story. Each group has a different part of the story to illustrate.
Each group performs their section of the story to the rest of the class.
After further rehearsing, the students can present the sections as a connected dance to other classes or to family and friends, with narration by the teacher or assigned students.
How Māui found the secret of fire Te kiteanga o te kāpura
The students listen to the story How Māui Found the Secret of Fire – Te Kiteanga o te Kāpura. In the story, Mahuika, the Māori goddess of fire, pulls off each of her fingernails, representing each of her five children – Kōnui (thumb), Kōroa (first finger), Mānawa (second finger), Māpere (third finger), and Tōiti (little finger).
Lead a brainstorming session about different action and '-ing' words that describe 'fire', for example, jumping, flickering, hot, red, blazing, roaring, crackling, burning, sparking, flaming, raging, consuming. Help the students to explore some of these words, using different body parts, levels, directions, size, on the ground, off the ground, travelling, and so on. (See Dancing the Long White Cloud – 'The Volcano Erupts'.)
As a class or in small groups, the students create a dance depicting Mahuika, goddess of fire.
Shape shifter Huringa āhua
Introduce the idea that Māui was able to keep out of trouble by transforming himself into different creatures. He was known as the 'shape shifter'.
Help the students to explore how they can make different kinds of shapes as if they are Māui transforming from one creature to another – hawk, fish, stone, tree, lizard, fire, wind, fantail, and so on. For example:
- shapes that are curved, angular, twisted, on one leg
- shapes that are initiated by nature/creature images
- slow, smooth transitions from one distinctive body shape into another in eight counts (these transitions can be performed in place or while travelling)
- symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes with a partner
- changing their shape (while in place and/or travelling around the room) in response to a narration of a story.
The students could create and perform a dance-drama to depict the different characteristics of Māui, that is,, the trickster, taming the sun, fishing up the North Island, taking fire from Mahuika, changing into a hawk to escape the fire, inventing string games, juggling, and so on.