LEARNING ABOUT THE MAORI!

Today we got the unique opportunity to visit a Marae, a community meeting house of the local tribe. It was very intimidating at first, we had to follow strict ceremony when entering- no shoes, females first, and we had to sing a song of greeting. After that we had to greet the staff working there the Maori way, which means we had to touch noses with them!!!! All of it was very foreign to us and we all thought we had messed something up or offended someone. But after that it was much less formal, and we learned about tribal culture and some fun tribal games! I think New Zealand has done a great job of preserving Maori culture, their art and language are all around the islands. I think if America had followed a similar route with dealing with its native peoples, then native Americans today would be much happier to teach people about their culture.