Powhiri

Powhiri (pronounced po-fuh-ri because wh makes the f sound): Maori welcoming ceremony involving speeches, dancing, singing, and finally the hongi.

Today we experienced a Powhiri at Henderson South Primary School (one of the schools where 4 BYU girls teach). It was such a neat experience to see such a unique cultural ceremony put on by such young children. We walked into the big hall (gym) as all the students welcomed us with a song/chant/dance. We were invited to sit in front of the whole school as a man gave an introductory speech in Maori. We had no idea what he was saying—and as I looked around, most of the kids didn’t either—but fortunately he summed it up for us in English, too. Dr. Jacobs presented them with a gift (a beautiful Navajo sand painting) and then gave a speech in Maori and a speech in English. We then participated by singing a song we had learned in our classes at the beginning of January—Te Aroha. It is a beautiful Maori song about love, and I think we actually sounded pretty good. Hopefully our Maori pronunciations weren’t too off!

Te aroha

Te whakapono

Me te rangimarie

Tatou, tatou e

The principal of Henderson South gave a speech—Maori and English—and then the students sang and danced a little more. They were so cute and so fun to watch! The ceremony ended with the hongi, which is a Maori greeting where you press noses and foreheads with another person in order to "mix breath" to make friends. Yes, quite interesting. We were all a little nervous about this because we were told we were going to have to greet a whole line of staff members in this way. For them, it is natural, but for us American girls, it is a little uncomfortable. We were prepared to do it anyway, but then the principal started it off by just greeting us with a handshake and kiss on the cheek (another common greeting) and everyone just followed his lead. Guess we'll have our traditional hongi experience at another Maori ceremony!

We concluded the Powhiri by having morning tea with the Henderson South staff. They really outdid themselves with the morning tea. They had lots of different bread, scones, cookies, quiche, meat pies, pizza bread, brownies, etc. I think all 16 of us left absolutely stuffed with all the delicious food. I love the rich Maori culture that is so present in our schools. When I look back to my elementary school days, if we had done a welcome ceremony, the only thing we could have done was sing our school song, which one of the teachers had made up one day while she was stuck in traffic! And we sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle. Such a “rich cultural experience” that would have been. Ha!

These are the adorable students at Henderson South!

The man on the very right gave the introductory speech, all in Maori. The man in the suit next to him is the principal of Henderson South, Trevor Diamond.

And here's all 16 of us just outside Henderson South Primary School.