On Tuesday morning, we went to the Waikato Museum. The children were so very excited about this day. We had talked about what kind of things we would see at the museum. Some children shared that they had seen a waka there.
At the museum, we saw the waka, Te Winika. This used to be a war canoe that had warriors, rowers/paddlers to take them to a war. The waka was eyes at the front which were made by albatross' feathers and the tail of the waka was made by harakeke. About 40 to 60 people were able to fit in the canoe.
We saw amazing carving as well. Carving and tukutuke panels are like a book that tells us stories of the past.
We saw many interesting patterns in the tukutuku panels.
When we came back from the trip, we talked a lot about what we saw at the museum. We talked a lot about tukutuku panels and how they were made by weaving. We talked about what shapes we saw in the panels. After this, we tried to make our own tukutuku panels using various shapes.
Children freely explored the shapes and where they placed them. Some of them were inspired by the tukutuku panels which were like stairs. Each of them so different and beautiful.
