Aotearoa - Tumblr Posts
I love being reminded of how beautiful humanity is. Look at this spectacular Māori choir go!
Alice Te Punga Somerville, Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised - Kupu rere kē
This is yet another example showing how science is merely one part of a greater world.
Mangapohue Natural Bridge in North Island, New Zealand
Now that National and ACT look like they're set for an awful term for new zealand, do not let yourself forget.
Don't forget how mainstream media accepted blanket national ads on news websites without question. How they promoted David Seymour and other right politicians as guests on comedy panel shows, pushing their profile and image. How they insisted on describing threats of genocide, violence and terrorism as "jokes", "opinions", and "honest mistakes".
Don't forget the national party members accepting saluting nazis in their midst. David seymour's "jokes" about violently murdering Pacifica people. The female maori politicians receiving death threats, being physically assaulted and having their homes invaded . Christopher luxon describing the poor as "bottom feeders". Their allyships with destiny church. Their attempts to frame queer people as predators. Their clear and ongoing attempts to redress antisemitic conspiracies into "maori elite" ones; and saying we should be literally exterminated.
And most of all, you BETTER not forget to take action. We have years to make sure this doesn't happen again, to ensure they can get as few of their disgusting plans accomplished as possible. We have to make change wherever we can and ensure that marginalized voices are accepted, supported and lifted up in our communities.
Fuck National. Fuck ACT. Fuck NZ First. And fuck all their pathetic little cronies.
We won't be silenced.
Legends and myths about trees
Forest spirits and natives (2)
Patupaiarehe – Night spirits of the Maori people of New Zealand. Dwell in the darkness deep in the forest.
Patupaiarehe are legendary humanoid cryptids native to New Zealand that hide in forests and are said to have the power to induce a trance and to lure people away. They are supernatural beings (he iwi atua) in Māori mythology that are described as pale to fair skinned with blonde hair or red hair, usually having the same stature as ordinary people, and never tattooed.
They can draw mist to themselves, but tend to be nocturnal or active on misty or foggy days as direct sunlight can be fatal to them. They prefer raw food and have an aversion to steam and fire.
The music of their kōauau and pūtōrino (small flutes), along with their singing of waiata, which songs are sung solo, in unison, or at the octave, occasionally reveals their presence on foggy days. A kōauau is a small flute, ductless and notchless, four to eight inches (ten to twenty centimetres) long, open at both ends and having from three to six fingerholes placed along the pipe.
They could lure people away from safety with the music of their flutes, and had magical powers and special knowledge. Some believe that red-haired Māori are their descendants. Patupaiarehe sometimes taught people magical chants and other skills. They were good at fishing, and one chief spied on them to learn how to make nets.
Patupaiarehe were seldom seen. They were thought to live in several places in the North Island, including in the Waikato, around Rotorua and in the Urewera mountains. They also lived in some places in the South Island.
kōauau sound demonstrations
木にまつわる伝説・神話
森の精霊たちと原住民 (2)
パトゥパイアレヘ 〜 森の奥の暗闇に棲んでいるニュージーランドのマオリ族に伝わる夜の精霊
パトゥパイアレヘは、ニュージーランドに生息する人型の生物で、森に潜み、トランス状態を引き起こし、人を誘い出す力があると言われている。彼らは、マオリ神話に登場する超自然的な存在 (ﾍ･ｲｳｨ･ｱﾄｩｱ) で、青白い美肌、金髪または赤毛、通常普通の人と同じ背丈で、タトゥーをしていることは無いとされる。
霧を引き寄せることができるが、直射日光が当たると命に関わるため、夜行性で、霧や霧のかかった日に活動する傾向がある。生ものを好み、蒸気や火を嫌う。
コワウアウとプートゥリーノ (小笛) の音楽と、ソロ、ユニゾン、オクターブで歌われるワイアタの歌は、霧の日に時々彼らの存在を明らかにすることができる。コアウアウは、長さ4～8インチ（10～20センチ）、両端が開き、パイプに沿って3～6個の指穴がある、ダクトもノッチもない小さな笛である。
彼らは笛の音で人々を安全な場所に誘い出し、不思議な力と特別な知識を持っていた。赤毛のマオリ族はその末裔であるという説もある。パトゥパイアレヘは時々、魔法の呪文やその他の技術を人々に教えた。彼らは漁が得意で、ある酋長は網の作り方を学ぶために彼らを見張った。
パトゥパイアレヘはめったに目撃されることはなかった。ワイカトを含む、北島、ロトルア周辺、ウレウェラ山脈など、いくつかの場所に生息していたと考えられている。また、南島のいくつかの場所にも住んでいたようだ。
コアウアウ・サウンド・デモンストレーション
A bilingual book about the Māori creation story has won the highest accolade in children's literature.
Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku by Motueka writer Mat Tait (Ngāti Apa ki te rātō) won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award at New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults held at Wellington's Pipitea Marae.
Te Wehenga simultaneously tells the Māori creation pūrākau, which explains the beginning of the world, in te reo Māori and English.
A comprehensive list of my favourite movies
1. The Road to El Dorado
-nostalgia, homoerotic, gorgeous
2. The Emperors New Groove
-nostalgia again, hilarious, found family sorta deal
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
-im gay
4. Mamma Mia
-im gay the sequel, but also a theatre kid who cant act or sing
5. Moana
-stunning visuals, stunning music, im from aotearoa and i grew up reading about maui so seeing that represented was really speacial
6. gnomeo and juliet
-i don’t even know. music = good, shakespeare retellings = great, cast = stellar
i got into an argument over official languages with my nana today but she didn’t let me speak so it’s been bubbling inside of me for fucking ages so i’m just gonna write what i would say here for my own benefit :)
(for context, i live in Aotearoa (New Zealand))
the only reason you would make a language official if it’s 1. important to the people of the country and 2. it’s going to be lost if it isn’t legally protected.
English doesn’t need the protection, we all speak english, we all know english, people aren’t denied opportunities because they only know english. Te Reo Māori needs the legal standing it has been granted to prevent it from nearing extinction, again. Making Te Reo Māori an official language means that Māori people have better chances to be represented accurately in court, hospitals, schools, and everywhere else. Te Reo Māori needed to be protected.
New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) needed to be made an official language as the deaf people of Aotearoa didn’t have access to the country’s resources outside the deaf community. Making NZSL an offical language means that deaf new zealanders get to have a translator in court, in the medical sector, in schools. it gives them a fairer chance to succeed in a hearing dominated world. NZSL needed to be protected.
English didn’t. English doesn’t. you can go ANYWHERE and speak english, and get what you want, you don’t have to jump through hoops if you are a native english speaker of aotearoa. exams are, by default, in english, you don’t need to request a translator, or translated copy. you can understand everything without a middle man in a legal setting. the doctor can tell you directly what is wrong with you. English stands to gain absolutely nothing by making it an official language. it wouldn’t change anything. it’s not necessary, and it would lower the importance of being an offical language. in the public eye, Te Reo and NZSL got a boost up, climbing their way up to be seen as a proper language, not a “primitive” language, as they have both been described. English doesn’t need the boost.
Aotearoa only needs the two official languages.
Te Reo Māori (made official in 1987)
New Zealand Sign Language (made offical in 2006)
VUW stop cancelling arts and humanities courses challenge: impossible
i don’t know how far my reach is but here in Aotearoa, we have a time honoured tradition. Crate Day. Where on the first saturday of december (first saturday of summer here in the southern hemisphere) you buy a crate of beer (12 bottles (750mls each (9 litres of beer))) and you start at midday and you have until midnight to finish them (1 bottle per hour) but beer is gross as hell so some people do two boxes (of rtds) (24 bottles/cans of a Ready To Drink)
but i am a little baby light weight
and so my flatmate and i decided to just split a bottle of prosecco and make mimosas. but then we realised that was only 3-4 standards each. so we got red bull and decided to vodka redbulls. and then we realised we had both opened a v (energy drink in nz) so i have currently drunk 2 vodka redbulls and half a bottle of wine and one vodka v.
i was having an excellent time listening and jamming to 2010’s tunes. i decided to make people food
then two other girls came over
they didn’t eat any of my food
and now it’s not 2010’s music it’s music i don’t like
and it flatmate who i was drinking with is talking to the other girls more and ignoring me and my additions to the conversation
and now i’m not having fun anymore :( i just want to jam out to white girl music as i down a bottle of wine
is that too much to ask :(
back in my hometown and rereading The Foxhole Court. it’s like i’m 16 and again
bringing this back to say that victoria univeristy of wellington hates ME personally !!!!! provided me with a timetable that was perfect and had no problems, and then THREE WEEKS out from the start of my third and final year of this GODFORSAKEN degree they decide to CHANGE MY TIMETABLE to make it MUCH WORSE adorned with clashes. so now i will have to watch a lecture online, and i dont FUCKING WANT TO !!!!! online learning is SO HARD and i wanted to do well this year and its not fucking fair that they get to declare they are 33 million dollars in debt, whilst building new buildings and renovating areas for the STEM kids, but also have to cancel all my classes and fire all my lecturers and STILL PUT 30 FUCKING GRAND IN DEBT
VUW stop cancelling arts and humanities courses challenge: impossible
Happy Bandcamp Friday!
Just treated myself to Of Valleys and Mountains, by Pull Down The Sun, and the entire Diplodocus back catalogue.
Of Valleys and Mountains is great slice of Aotearoan metal from way back in 2020, though I only discovered Pull Down the Sun in 2021 and listened to the album in 2022. The band probably sits somewhere in the realms of post-metal, and the album is delightfully heavy, and has a real groove to it. Definitely one of my new favourites :)
Diplodocus, on the other hand, was much more of an impulse buy, in fact I only heard them for the first time yesterday. It's dungeon synth, by way of dinosaurs. So, dino synth. :D
It's heavy synth ambient music with shades of DIY black metal. Feels like this is going to get a lot of rotation when I'm playing prehistoric-themed tabletop games. It's honestly kinda delightful.
Tumblr loves a good poll don't they? Well here's your chance to vote in Aotearoa New Zealand's bird of the century election. The election that actually had confirmed cases of voter fraud in 2020. Though that was not the first case of fowl play, with accusations made by the winner's rival faction, the takahe, in 2008 of accepting "undeclared political donations from wealthy migratory birds living in Monaco", though this was cleared by the SFFO (Serious Feathered Fraud Office).
Its also the only bird popularity contest (AFAIK) which has been won by a bat (a major NZ controversy).
People get very passionate about this competition, and brands and political leaders will give support to their favorite species. The wikipedia page on the competition has both a controversies and a celebrity endorsement section. Adult Toy Megastore has historically given support to the hihi for their efforts in "[leading] the sex positivity movement among songbirds" and modeling consensual polyamory.
My personal favorite is the kea, which is too smart for its own good, and has knowingly diverted traffic by dragging cones onto the road to get cars to drive around them. They did this multiple times, just for the sake of chaos. They now have a kea playground at the tunnel purpose built to distract them from their destruction. They also once tried to steal my shoelaces off my feet, which I can respect.
New Zealand posters from Flight of the Conchords
Other countries state buildings: Capitol Hill, Palace of Westminster, Parliament Hill, The Hill, Parliament House, generally normal and dignified names Aotearoa New Zealand: Hehe bees