Students in Toroa Hub have been working on and learning about to collecting, cooking and preserving Kai, like the Māori tipuna.

Students from years 7 and 8 have been thinking about our New Zealand history and how Māori people (and their ancestors) would gather food. We have also wondered and discussed about the various difficulties that were faced by them. When we consider the fact that they had to catch fish, moa, other birds as well as collect berries, leaves, etc. the majority of this needed to be collected back to their community, then stored and cooked. We questioned how did they do this with the limited natural resources available back then?

To get the answers for all these questions, Toroa hub students worked in groups of 3-4. Before starting the task they were taught about the natural resources found in our native environment, even watching how Gordon Ramsay foraged for food in the NZ bush. We also learned about the medicinal properties of some of the natural foods. 

Students were then given access to a variety of natural resources that they could use to create something either to catch food, store food, carry food or cook food with. Students were only allowed to use natural resources, no glue, tape, scissors etc. They were given flax (Harakeke) leaves, inflorescence, branches, etc. Tamariki could forage and collect some dried twigs, stone, etc., if they needed more.

After some time, there came a point when the resources that had been collected had run out, and there became friction between the groups. The students from the hub were brought together in HQ and we discussed how resources were shared and traded between iwi and whanau in those days. This made the students reflect and rethink if they needed everything they had, or if they could use it to trade with another group to get the things that they wanted. It was great to see communication and collaboration in action. 

Awesome, creative thinking happened, which is evident in the pictures taken during their work. A variety of resources were made by our enthusiastic learners, like stone spears for fishing, basket for storing food, fireplace for cooking, bow and arrow for hunting, spears made with wood and stone, etc. It was fantastic to see them using their current and previous knowledge and adapting their thinking to utilise the resources to such a high quality. 

It was also amazing to see some clever weaving patterns. It's worth noting that the internet was not available those days and our tamariki too did not use the internet. They used the support from one another and the kaimahi to make their creations.