Sunday, November 18, 2007

KIWIANA


This term, we studied kiwiana. I did a collage on fish and chips - a kiwi tradition!

Our homework is put onto a wiki so that we can access it at home, and at school. http://kiwianainroom5.wikispaces.com.
Our homework one week was to make a kete (a woven Maori bag) or use an existing bag and put in at least 5 kiwiana items, or pictures of them with typed up factfile cards. Here are some pictures of my kete...




KIWIANA REFLECTIONS

Can our culture survive without the arts?

Diana Adams Research Reflection:

Two things that interested me the most about the artist I studied and their art were * how she is obsessed with river stones and loves to paint them! * and how she was going to be a lawyer but decided to be an artist instead.

My time management durig this inquiry project was
poor satisfactory good excellent

One thing that I did particularly well in this inquiry was my presentation. I am proud of it and how I limited my colours to red, black and white.

One thing that I need to work on with regards to researching in the future is gathering information from as many sources as I can to form in depth questions and answers.

The things that I was pleased with about my presentation were my little group of 6 paintings done by Diana Adams, all of plants!

The things that I would change about my presentation are next time I would make my answers longer.

I am a better researcher after this inquiry because now I have repeated this process 4 times and I am familiar with it.

WILL OUR CULTURE SURVIVE WITHOUT THE ARTS?

Our fertile question (a question where there is no right answer, nor wrong answer) for this term is Will our Culture Survive Without the Arts? I think that it cannot: The Arts are a huge part of our culture. This includes Maori culture. Maoris have the poi dance in their culture, and also the haka, another way of expressing their feelings. Language is also a huge part of culture, and, in its own way, an art.
Tourism has been big in New Zealand, especially since the movie Lord of the Rings was filmed here.
Maori weaving is a visual art, and music is a part of New Zealand as well. For example, Dave Dobbyn's song, Welcome Home, has a little bit of Maori language incorporated into the lyrics.
So you see, if we were to take all these arts out of our culture - visual art, drama, music and dance - that are specific to New Zealand, I do not think that New Zealand culture would be the same, or even survive. The Arts are a huge part of our culture.

Promoting New Zealand through the Arts reflection:
The Thinking Hats:

Our NZ play - the script is in a more recent post for you to read - The Arts.

WHITE HAT
How did your performance promote New Zealand?
What aspects did you include that were specific to New Zealand?

* Our play was about visiting different places in New Zealand.
* We 'learnt' a little bit about each place while we were there.
* The places we visited promoted New Zealand - like when we went to the rugby.

YELLOW HAT
What were the good things about your performance and how it promoted New Zealand and its culture?

* We may be able to persuade people to visit these places when they learn a little bit about each place that we visit.
* We incorporated Maori culture into a play - I was a Maori form Rotorua, where Maori culture is celebrated.

BLACK HAT
What were the bad things about your performance?
In what way did it fail to promote New Zealand and its culture?

* We haven't got many microphones, so we will have to speak really clearly and loudly.
* Our play was meant to be maximum of 5 minutes, but it us over 10!

RED HAT
How did you feel about your performance?
How did you feel about the impacts that your performance had in promoting New Zealand and its culture?

* The planning of our play was fun, but limited in time.
* We haven't performed our play yet, but I think that it will teach everyone a little bit about our amazing country and the places that you can go.

GREEN HAT
What would you do differently in the performance?
How could your perfomance have further promoted New Zealand and its culture?

* Our organisation and time management could have been improved.
* More microphones!
* In promoting New Zealand and its culture, we only had New Zealand destinations and a powerpoint in the background. We sang a New Zealand song, Summer Holiday, and I did a Maori dance, but they weren't obvious things and we could have included other aspects of New Zealand and The Arts.

BLUE HAT
What type of thinking did you use in planning, practicing, performing and promoting New Zealand?

* Positive thinking. We were a little bit pressured with the time.
* Creative thinking. How were we going to promote New Zealand and The Arts?

Score: 5-

Towards the end of this study, we all brought something representing Kiwiana culture and put it in a time capsule, to be buried in the foundations of one of my classmate's new house. I brought one of my dad's old jandals!

I have decided to put in the time capsule a jandal.

I have chosen this item because jandals are a kiwiana icon! And many New Zealanders wear jandals.

I think that it is important to preserve this and pass it on to future generations because fashion changes - who knows whether jandals will still exist?

The item that I have chosen reflects New Zealand culture in the following ways:
Jandals are a kiwiana icon. It shows that New Zealand has a lot of coast line - the beach is a kiwi tradition for many. People associate jandals with New Zealand.

Reflecting on my learning: Do we have a responsibility to pass on our culture from one generation to another? Justify your answer.
No one knows when our time capsule will be found, nor what life will be like in a couple of hundred years. Jandals may not exist, and people can find out what life was like in 2007.

Are the Arts an effective way of preserving culture and passing it down from one generation to another? Will our culture survive without the arts? Justify your answer.
The Arts are a way to express your feelings. They are a huge part of New Zealand. Everywhere, the Arts are incorporated with our culture. (See above) If we were to take away the Arts from our culture, I don't think that our culture would survive.

Score: 5+

1 comment:

Jess said...

WOW, you have added a lot of posts!! I like how you done a brief outline on each term!! Your e-portfolio is looking great!!! Keep up the GREAT work!
Jess