Inquiry: The Story Of Hineahuone

This week for inquiry, our task was to create a storyboard about the story of Hineahuone. This task was to be done with a partner, so for this task, my partner was Sanujan. Sanujan and I work really well together, so he was one of the obvious choices. Although before we could create a DLO, we first needed to sketchnote. Sketchnoting is when you take notes of a story or text by drawing simple pictures. You need to understand the basic parts of the story from only looking at the pictures. We did sketchnoting because it takes up less space on a sheet of paper, and is a fund and creative way to do something that people would find boring. Sanujan and I ended up loving this activity, and hope that we can both work on something like this again.

If you want to read the full story, then read from here down.

According to Maori legend, the world as we know it was formed when Tane Mahuta – the god of the forest – prised apart Ranginui, the father of the sky, and Papatuanuku, the mother of the earth. Afterwards, Tane Mahuta and his brothers slowly went about making all things on earth and in the sky. When they were done, they had created a dazzling and beautiful world, but there were no people to enjoy it.

Tane Mahuta went about convincing the gods that they should make a woman, who could then go on to have children. The gods agreed, so Tane Mahuta took red earth from Papatuanuku, and shaped it into the form of a woman. Impressed, Tawhiri Matea, god of the winds, whispered “take my breath. Give her life”. And so Tane Mahuta bent over the woman he had created, placed his nose against hers, and breathed deeply. Her chest moved, and she sneezed – “Tihei!” The gods were ecstatic, and together they gave her the gift of life – mauriora – and the first woman, Hineahuone, was made.

Today, the hongi is the traditional greeting of the Maori people. It is known as the ‘breath of life’, and is performed by pressing noses – just like Tane Mahuta did to breathe life into Hineahuone. This greeting makes the visitor at one with the tangata whenua, or hosts.