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Hupara were mainly forest-based resources used by hapu to educate & train their youth on and to provide tribes with recreations, whanaungatanga podiums and various physical & mental pathways. Hupara researched in this edition include moari, kokiri, torere, aratiatia, tokatoka, haumia, pou-matai-whetu, tupuwaru, maunga, toi-huarewa and another twenty others. They were used for jumping, swinging, balancing, competing, exercising (much like cross fit), training, sitting, sleeping, contemplating, debating, greeting, game playing, dancing, learning, speaking, demonstrating, moving and performing sacred rites on - especially during Rakau-nui, the most auspicious period for hupara festivals. Legends abound about hupara use in ancient times and named landmarks prolifically recall their past abundance. This introduction provides an overview of ancient locations, their spiritual connections to atua/te taiao/ he tangata and information on their numerous constructions and utilisations.Contents
CHAPTER ONE
1) 30 Hupara: their descriptions/illustrations, whakapapa, legends and primary uses with youth-centred evaluations. How they were magnificently and intelligently utilised in times of old and what propositions they can offer us today.
2) Hupara Kaitiakitanga and Conservation Propositions: a huge area for utilising hupara to teach effective guardianship of each other, waterways and forests and ideas on future-proofing Maori heritage. Tie-ins with traditional games, music and dance.
CHAPTER TWO
3) Creating Powerful Hupara Narratives: methods to enthuse and generate interest for hupara studies amongst students and educators and optimally to promote the design, construction and installation of mara hupara (hupara gardens as in collectives of hupara with complimentary plantings) in school precincts, council parks & reserves, bush enclaves and on marae.
4) Hupara: Cross-Curriculum Resource Development
The Arts: Ways to encapsulate all the creative arts such as music, literature, language, dance, painting, sculpture, carving, film & cultural movement utilising hupara mediums.
Mathematics: experiential & theoretical methods for developing arithmetic, algebra, geometry, physical sciences, probability & statistics using hupara designs & installations. Enquiry into the best maths plants to incorporate into te mara hupara.
Physical Education: ways to develop health initiatives, physical fitness & skill acquisitions and improve balance, strength and motor control via hupara programmes. How hupara can increase the health & well-being of self and communities. Some hupara can also be explicitly utilised for anti-bullying and suicide prevention initiatives.
Science: How hupara can help to develop lessons on biology, chemistry, earth & environmental studies & physics. What plants, fungi and trees are ideal to compliment hupara installations.
Social Studies: enquiries into hupara methods of social utilisations now and in the past. Explorations into the creations of natural gyms in forests with water springs and shelter canopies. Some of the cultural associations and histories of hupara.
Technology: descriptions of ideal tree and plant-types with which to construct mara hupara. Hupara design, decoration, dedication and installation ideas.
5) Hupara Quizzes, enquiry and classroom activities
HE PAPAKUPU
INDEX
Featured in the 24 April 2017 New Zealand Newsletter.
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