Friday, March 30, 2007

Feb 7 evening

13yu-MitaiHangiFood
13yv-MitaiCreek
13yw-MitaiCanoeTourists
13yx-MitaiCanoeBlur
13yy-MitaiCanoeWarriors
13yz-MitaiChallenge
13z-MitaiChallengeFace
13za-MitaiHouseCarving
13zb-MitaiHakaFace
13zc-MitaiSongWomen
13zd-MitaiHakaPose
13ze-MitaiChief
13zf-MitaiPoi
13zg-MitaiWarrior
13zh-MitaiWarriorHaka

Lots of stomping and yelling and tattoos. My waist size expanded by 3.3%. Or so says Chunlin. Songs and ceremonies -- yelling and spinning spears, ugly faces are beautiful. Stick out your tongue! Show the whites of your eyes! Face tattoos: on women, just the owl on the chin; on men, bat on the forehead (bat was the only mammal when the Maori arrived -- they consider it a bird), parrot on the nose, owl, and kiwi on the cheeks. Ocean on the upper legs/lower body. Strength & speed. The birds are for knowledge, speaking, caring, and spiritual kiwis -- connection to mother earth -- protecting the trees by eating the bugs. Mother earth, father sky. ... Mucho food -- lamb, potatoes, chicken, rice, chocolate cake, pudding, etc etc etc. ... It all tasted lovely. But then again, perhaps that's because they starved us for a couple hours before feeding us.

No comments: