The Entertainment Turns out to be Entertaining and More…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Family Kiwidutch are staying at the Distinction Hotel in Rotorua and have been able to go to one of the Hotel restaurants to sample a tradional Maori Hangi (food cooked in the ground).

After the dinner there is also a small Maori display of dance and song  and Himself and I think this would be a perfect opportunity to introduce our kids to Maori  culture.

Since my roots are in the South Island (where traditionally only 5% of the Maori population live) I have to confess that my exposure to Maori culture is probably more limited than it should be.

Painfully aware of this deficit, I’ve determined to learn more and to expose my  children to any Maori experiences we can manage… so the chance  to see more is welcomed even if  it is a bit of  a  ”touristic” view.

Back at home in the Netherlands,Little Mr.and Himself  have been attempting to learn the words and actions of the Haka over the last year, an enterprise (especially on Little Mr’s part) sometimes filled with more good intent, face-pulling, noise  and enthusiasm than actual accuracy.

I’ve often had to pretend that tears of laughter were actually tears of fear due to the fervour of their warrior ‘intimidation” but the fact remains that the sight of a “Maori” battle force that consists soley of a 196 cm (6’5″) Dutchman accompanied by a short six year old skinny kid  stamping their feet and beating their chests and thighs and shouting “Ka Mate  Ka Mate” (“it is death, it is death” (pronounced: “car ma tay”) as loud as they can, is more likley to assult your funny bone and give you temours of the mirthful kind, than to make you shake with fear and instill terror to your heart.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Here in Rotorua they can see how it’s really done and to our delight, not only do we get a little show, the performers are also quick to involve the audience… first a young Korean man gets called up onto the stage to be presented with his (pre-arranged) Birthday cake and to receive a “Hongi” (a traditional greeting that involves touching of noses and sharing of breath) and much to the mirth of the rest of his tour party the guy is first timid until he understands what actions are required of him and then gets so enthusiastic that it almost turns what’s supposed to be a very gentle touch,  into a head-butt.

Next the ladies were invited up to learn a Poi dance… well not the dance really, just some Poi actions and Kiwi Daughter went up and gave it a go.

One thing is certain, it looks easy but it definiately is not, she gave it a galent effort as did the other ladies who were also fast discovering that their hand-eye co-ordination skills needed a great deal of fine tuning. They laughed as hard as everyone else at it all and it was great fun.

A little later the men and boys are invited onto the stage to learn a Haka, Little Mr, so full of bravado and noise at home suddenly clings to me in total shyness whilst Himself gleefully goes up and gives it his best shot.

Some visiting Australian tourists (several guys and their sons) make a good attempt too but the most entertaining buy far on the night were several older Korean and Japanese men who had a great deal of enthusiasm but very little coordination at following along in time with the rest of the groups movements and who’s chanted words resembled the actual Maori ones only insofar as they were sounds issued from their vocal chords… not just their group but the entire place were wiping away tears of mirth as they tried seriously and heroically to do a Haka but failed miserably.

They took it all in excellent spirit and beamingly returned to their seats to great applause.

Afterwards some of the peformers came out and posed with the guests so the Kiwidutch family album sports some very amusing family photographs.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

All in all we have had an excellent time this evening, great food, entertaining entertainment and a very small but enjoyable introduction to Maori culture. I took a few video’s and posted them to You Tube but have been less successful getting them to link properly in this post… Do you see clickable links below that consist for strange number /letter combinations or do you see real You Tube “frames”?  At least when I tried, clicking the link took me  to the video… I hope it does the same for you.

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Being the offspring of two cultures is quite literally: a mixed blessing.

Being the offspring of two cultures is quite literally a mixed blessing. There is always the realization that you never fit 100% into either culture, and that your world view is permanently imbibed by subtle differences of the distinct influences that you experienced during your upbringing, the vast differences of languages and a myriad of other tiny bits and bobs that came into your life if you grew up differently to your friends who had both parents and relations and the same ethnicity, language, religion and culture.

My Father speaks English.. well he thinks he does and yes, for most people he does.. and they understand him, more or less. Let’s be honest, some understand him more and some understand him a lot less. There’s a simple reason for it too, and that’s the bilingual wonder that even after 50 years in his adopted country he still sports a Dutch accent thick enough cut into wedges and the distinctly different sentence structure produced by a European childhood, that reveals itself in little oddities that would make people smile, frown, look surprised or just plain confused.

Even though I grew up with it, it still takes me by surprise now and again. Like when I was a child and he announced that he was going to fetch “ ags” .. yep, it was Winter so maybe he was going to chop wood… or since it was a cold morning maybe a hot fried breakfast on the cards ? eggs/axe are still two words that he uses that require a strong idea of the context so that you can have any hope of guessing what he meant. And yes, he was offended if we ever got it wrong.

I find that it’s often assumed that a mix like mine: New Zealand /Dutch will be rather easy: ok, aside from the obvious language difference, it should be pretty much the same living style with just the addition of a funnily written address : after all, going from living in a western society on one side of the world, to living in another western society on the opposite side of the world should be comparatively simple…. right? …

oh soooo ….wrong!