For our cultural reporter assignment, I had no problem choosing the culture that I wanted to report on. Being very excited about my upcoming study abroad experience in New Zealand, I am doing my blogs on the Maori. The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand and have inhabited the land since 1300 AD. Europeans moved in during the 17th and 18th century and had control until the New Zealand Declaration of Independence was signed in 1835. Shortly after that, the Maori asserted their independence from the crown in the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Ever since then, the Maori have been a very important part of New Zealand life.
The Maori culture is very distinct and is known for their language and tribal traditions, such as tattoo and dance. Maori is one of three of New Zealand's official languages, which shows how the culture is still very prominent in modern life. One way that the language has gained popularity in recent years is the introduction of Maori language broadcasting. The culture is also known for their performance art called the Haka. The haka is a dance that celebrates accomplishment and gained publicity when the "All Blacks" rugby team began performing a haka before each match. Here is a clip of a Haka performed by the All Blacks.
As you can see with the video, New Zealander's are very proud of their Maori heritage and perform the Haka with much excitement. It is a very strong dance, which shows the more island/primitive side of the culture. This really interests me because it is so different than what I am used to seeing here in the United States. The Maori are also known for their art. They are a very resourceful culture and use things found in their lush environment to create artwork. Like many indigenous groups, Maori have many oral stories that are passed down.
With the limited face to face resources, I plan on gathering a lot of my information from the internet. Luckily, the New Zealand Maori Internet Society is striving to promote the Maori presence on the internet. The internet will be a great resource but it will be more challenging to get an inside perspective on the culture. Despite this difficulty, I’m really excited to learn more about the Maori and their culture. Like I said, it’s completely different than my own culture and I think there are a lot of unique aspects of Maori life. I'm really excited to learn more and can't wait to go to New Zealand : )
Sources
1. Maori. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2011, from Tourism New Zealand website: http://www.newzealand.com/int/#/maori/
2. Maori Culture. (2011). Retrieved September 25, 2011, from Virtual New Zealand website: http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/culture/maori/
3. Maori. (2011). Retrieved September 25, 2011, from Maori Tourism Limited website: http://www.maori.com/
With the limited face to face resources, I plan on gathering a lot of my information from the internet. Luckily, the New Zealand Maori Internet Society is striving to promote the Maori presence on the internet. The internet will be a great resource but it will be more challenging to get an inside perspective on the culture. Despite this difficulty, I’m really excited to learn more about the Maori and their culture. Like I said, it’s completely different than my own culture and I think there are a lot of unique aspects of Maori life. I'm really excited to learn more and can't wait to go to New Zealand : )
Sources
1. Maori. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2011, from Tourism New Zealand website: http://www.newzealand.com/int/#/maori/
2. Maori Culture. (2011). Retrieved September 25, 2011, from Virtual New Zealand website: http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/culture/maori/
3. Maori. (2011). Retrieved September 25, 2011, from Maori Tourism Limited website: http://www.maori.com/
Wow great blog! That video of the All Blacks rugby team doing this haka is amazing! Best sports entrance ever and that's coming from a Virginia Tech fan;-) Like where you are headed with the blog. Keep adding videos and visuals to the blog. It really enhanced it.
ReplyDeleteHere's some APA info on citing web sources
Nonperiodical Web Document, Web Page, or Report
List as much of the following information as possible (you sometimes have to hunt around to find the information; don't be lazy. If there is a page like http://www.somesite.com/somepage.htm, and somepage.htm doesn't have the information you're looking for, move up the URL to http://www.somesite.com/):
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of document. Retrieved from http://Web address
Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderland, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). General format. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
NOTE: When an Internet document is more than one Web page, provide a URL that links to the home page or entry page for the document. Also, if there isn't a date available for the document use (n.d.) for no date.
Computer Software/Down