Activity 2: Discovering Aotearoa [4 points]
Many people believe that Kupe was the first explorer to discover Aotearoa, New Zealand in about 1300. He navigated his way by waka to Aotearoa from Hawaiki using traditional Polynesian navigation techniques - just like Nainoa Thompson (from Activity 1) did much later on. Legend says that he followed a great octopus all the way to Aotearoa/New Zealand and finally destroyed it in Cook Strait (the water between the North and South Islands).
Many years later, a Dutch explorer from The Netherlands, Abel Tasman, was exploring the Pacific Ocean when he came across New Zealand. He thought that he was the first person to ‘discover’ the country (despite the fact that Māori already lived in New Zealand!) and made the claim in 1642 that he had ‘discovered’ a new land. His exploration of New Zealand inspired many other European explorers to follow his lead and travel to the Oceania.
Kupe and Abel Tasman were two different men from two very different backgrounds (cultures) who shared a common interest - exploration.
For this activity we would like you to think about your own experiences and your own cultural background. Where does your family come from? Do they come from Europe like Abel Tasman, Polynesia like Kupe, or somewhere else?
On your blog, please tell us about your cultural background. Where do you and your family come from?
my family is form china.
me is form china.
every people in china will eat a variety of things at each festival:
We eat dumplings on the first day of winter,
we have a festival called the Lantern Festival, We had dessert at that time.
and there is a lot of delicious food in china.
Hi Jason, this is Mrs Collins and I'll be commenting on blogs over the term break. Well done on posting and participating in the SLJ this year. I like the post you created on "Discovering Aotearoa" and sharing about your family history. When we moved to New Zealand we had to leave all of our family behind in England, but they, and some of our friends, have been out to visit many times... Do you speak Mandarin at home? Keep blogging, and commenting on others to increase your chance of winning one of the awesome prizes, and to keep up your learning over the school break!
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