What is a Moko?

Moko is the name for Māori tattoo and the culture that surrounds it.

Often the designs are tattooed in the face for different purposes

and with a wide range of applications which are sacred.Every moko

contains ancestral and tribal messages specific to the wearer. These

messages tell the story of the wearer's family and tribal affiliations,

and their place in these social structures.

'Tattoo' is the English version of the Tahitian word tatu. Tattoo is the

tradition of marking the skin with ink and needles, whereas moko is

the practice of scarring and marking the skin to reflect the whakapapa (genealogy) of the Māori.




Do moko symbols have a meaning?

All symbols have meaning, usually a tribal link that tells the background and stories of the wearer. Moko is a visual language that connects the wearer to their whakapapa and its values.


Why do people get moko?

A moko on the face is the ultimate statement of one's identity .For Māoris,

the head is believed to be the most sacred part of the body Therefore

to wear the moko on the face is an affirmation of the Māori identity,of who they are.


Is it only for men ?

Mokos are not just for men, also women wear moko on the face too. A

woman's moko is worn on the chin, as well as occasionally appearing on the

forehead, upper lip, nostrils, and throat. Sometimes facial moko is unfairly seen as intimidating, regardless of the wearer's intentions, but this can depend on the expression of the face of the wearer. The lines of a moko accentuate the lines of the face so emphasise the expressions that the person have.In this way the person looks like a warrior.

For what reasons people get tattoos?

Part-time Indian?

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is an autobiographical book written by Alexie Sherman in 2007. The book is about a child, whose name is Arnold Spirit, as well as known Junior, he lives in the Spokane Indian Reservation.

Because of some events that take place during the book, he wants to move from the School Reservation to a public high school located in Reardan, Washington.

The book has a lot of themes in which we can focus on more, but the one that I want to highlight is race and how is it developed in the novel. 

When Arnold decided to move from the school reservation to the all-white public high school, and he starts to travel every day he said something that totally called my attention, “Traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, I always felt like a stranger, I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other, it was like being Indian was my job, but it was only a part-time job” (Sherman, 2007).  Here we can see that Arnold’s point of view is in controversy, because he feels himself stranger in both places, in the reservation and in Reardan, I personally believe that his identity is changing every day, because he has to fight against bullying in the reservation, poverty, alcoholism, poor education, the lack of opportunities and on the other hand in Reardan he has to fight against stereotypes (he as an Indian boy, his talents, etc.)

According to the fact that I decided to talk about, this novel stereotypes a lot about how a white person looks like and how an Indian does. For instance the fact that is highly evident about race is the sport mascot of the Reardan School; Junior realizes that he and the mascot were the only Indians at school, and for me that was an image that we can infer from the message of racism, despite that, Junior has the power, the character, the strength to make friends with white boys from the new school, highlighting his intelligence and his naïve nature.  

All in all, the novel calls my attention in a lot of terms, the way Alexie developed bullying through cartoons, the alcoholism that were immerse in the reservation, the desire to become someone important in life, how some minimum details became some important facts during the novel, for instance when Junior hit the professor and the discovery of junior mother’s book, the novel starts to play the game, they are the most important events in the novel.

What about if Alexie had not move from the reservation to Reardan? ... Interesting...

WHO IS WITHOUT SIN...

So yes, we've been working with this book called "The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian". Haven't you read it yet? Well, let me tell you that you should -or you could watch the movie as well: Film Adaptation (trailer)

Junior, the main character, is an indian teen who was born with "water on his brain". He lives in a reservation (the rez) despised by americans, plus he's an ill guy so he's despised by his peers, too.

You see, it's not only what happens to the main character -because of who he is or where he is from- what makes this book so cool (to me), but the way the book is written, I mean the words, the metaphors and the writer's way of thinking... Yes, I find him pretty clever.

I'd like to analize the chapter called "Hope against Hope", because I believe is pretty much one of the most moving chapters of the book.

In his geometry class, Junior found out that the book that he was learning from is the same book that his mother did learn from about 30 years ago. He had realized they were helpless and he felt so angry about it that he threw the book away and it hit his teacher, Mr. P, breaking his nose.

After that Mr. P decided to have this very important conversation with Junior, which helped him make the biggest decision of his life: to finally leave the rez.

It's really moving the way Mr. P talks to Junior, he was like confessing his sins to the kid and you could feel he was truly sorry for what he had done in the past; he hurt physically and mentally, the indian kids back then, until they gave up their culture. He killed their culture, but he didn't want to do it anymore.

Mr. P saw a glow in Junior that no other kid in the rez had, he believed that Junior had thrown that book away because he still had hope, like a sign that he was refusing to give up while his classmates and all the people in the rez had already given up. Mr. P knew that Junior deserved better and that's why he tells him that the only way for him to keep his hope is leaving the reservation.

What we see in this chapter is completly heartbreaking, I mean, does you're culture defines your worth? So, because you're indian (and not NORTHamerican) you're worthless? It's really sad the fact that you have to walk away from you're "home" (or the place you were born in) to somewhere else so you can find a better life. A life that you could've perfectly had there if they had respected you, your culture and your hope, if they had helped you to keep those things.

People don't respect anything or anybody they consider less than them, and the truth is that they consider EVERYthing and EVERYbody less than them - and when I mean people, I include us as well... "Who is without sin, cast the first stone", anyone?...