Te Marae: A Home for Us All

The City of Wellington 

While we were in Wellington, we went to the National Museum of New Zealand – Te Papa. This museum was amazing. There were so many interesting exhibitions and I could have easily spent several days there. I even wanted to return the following day, but alas, life did not work out that way. When most people hear “guided tour of a museum,” they approach the idea with apprehension, especially if it is a national museum. The Smithsonian museums can be engaging and fun, but after an hour in some museums, they can become boring. This was not the case for Te Papa. To start off, we were greeted by a fantastic tour guide, Rangimoana, who, as a storyteller and actor, was able to excite and wow us with his stories.

He told us some of the Maori creation myths, and was able to make them relatable for us Americans. Rather than creating a distance between the tourists and the expert, he made us feel welcome and an important part of the extended family of Maori culture. He told us it was our stories and our museum. Not his, not New Zealand’s, but the world’s and ours. If I remember anything from the other tours, it might be one or two items from the museum, not so much the tour we initially received. I think I can remember at least 70% of Rangimoana’s tour. He immediately put everyone on the same level and spoke to us in such a way that we would not forget that equality.

Our class at Te Marae in Te Papa

The most striking exhibition that has stayed with me since our tour (which has only been about three or four days so far), is the Te Marae. It was this beautiful meeting house that made me regret not bringing my camera that day. You will have to bear with my low resolution phone pictures instead. Not only were the visuals of this meeting house stunning enough to give a person goose-bumps, but the ideas and themes the carvings were able to represent are equally goose-bump worthy. The pillars in the back (of which I unfortunately did not take a picture) represent the welcoming qualities of Te Papa, New Zealand, and possibly of Maori culture today. The pillars had a carving of images representing every possible group of people in the world, representing continents and religions.

 I thought these images provided a great way to think about the world and the new experiences we will have all throughout life. We must be willing to at least entertain the ideas and people that we will come across in life. If we close ourselves to these experiences, that would be a boring life, and we will become boring, and bitter, people. Those are not qualities that we should even think of attaching to ourselves. When we open ourselves and are as welcoming as the Te Marae pillars, we will have a very fulfilling life.

A greater connection between the experiences I had at the museum and the themes we have been exploring in class, especially the idea of community (the welcoming we have felt all over New Zealand), are exemplified in the Maori literature we have read. While reading “A Game of Cards” by Witi Ihimaera, the importance of community is found. The narrator’s grandmother is dying (and spoilers she passes away during the story), but the narrator reminisces about how everyone, family and people in the town, would always be at her house, either because they had no place to go, or to play a game of cards. Though everyone is distraught and upset at the idea of her dying, they know grieving will not help. They put their own feelings behind them for the one person in the community who sacrificed more than anyone else. How can they best celebrate the most beloved woman of their town than by playing a game of cards?  By working together as a community, they provide this wonderful woman a happy death than one with everyone speaking with hushed voices. They respected her and her work for everyone by treating her like they always did.

By putting the immediate, and future, needs of the community ahead of any individualistic ideas, the experiences will be better. If we rid ourselves of petty differences, and create a future for everyone, we will be able to accomplish so much more. We will actually be able to remember the information we learn on a museum tour and apply it to our own (or at least my own), experiences to change ourselves and the world for the better.

Quote by Henri Bergson

 

 

CW