Treaty of Waitangi

On Thursday morning we found out a little bit about the Treaty of Waitangi.  We found out that the Treaty is a very important document for New Zealand and that there are more than one of these.  

We also found out that Maori people had signed the Treaty with some people from England who came out to New Zealand on very big ships.  

We found out which countries the children in our team came from and put them on the map in our Exploration Cave.  We have children whose families have come to New Zealand from Samoa, Fiji, England, Latvia, Japan, Somalia, India, New Zealand.  Some of the children from New Zealand are Maori.  We found their Iwi on a special map of New Zealand.  This shows that their whanau have been in New Zealand for a very long time.

We are very lucky at Burnside Primary School because Mr Bateman, our principal, is Maori and he has a talking stick, a tukutuku, given to him by his whanau and a special cloak, a korowai.  These are very old and very special.  He showed us these in a special assembly on Thursday afternoon.  He talked about the Treaty of Waitangi and the special reason why we had a holiday the next day. 

We were super lucky because he let us hold his special talking stick and to feel his korowai which is made from feathers of a kiwi, a weka and a kahu.  It was super soft.

 The talking stick has many things on it that remind Mr Bateman about his whanau.  It has half of a head for his Great Great Great Grandmother and the other half for his Great Great Great Grandfather.  It has some of her hair that is plated to make a rope.  It has a piece of greenstone and a feather on it as well as some paua.