The Legend of Paikea

The Legend of Paikea

The Maori are an indigenous people from New Zealand. They came to this place it does more than 1000 years from their mythical natal land Hawaiki's polynesia.

Nowadays the people maori represents 14% of the population; their history, language and traditions are very important for identity of this country.

Their cultural representations as songs, dances and haka (dancing of ancestral war) are very interesting, but what caught my attention was The Legend of Paikea, Whale Rider, who arrived from the sea mounted in a mother-whale to create the land of people maori, and to teach traditions and sacred rituals for that the people to remain united and to respect mother Nature.

In the film that we saw, Whale Rider, was reflected as Maori try to keep their customs in modern times. In this history a girl named Paikea, fight for comply her destiny, to be a leader for her people. But this is overshadowed by the desire of her grandfather Koro, because he hoped to have a grandson to inherit the title of leader.

Throughout the film we see that such a title is forbidden for women to, however this does not stop Paikea in continuing her learning behind her grandfather, demonstrating great courage and bravery for wanting to preserve her roots.

The film so much  as New Zealand´s traditions teach us much about how our culture must to be, because today most Chilean don´t know, nor care to learn from their ancestors or roots, in this case the Mapuche are a mainstay essential to the beginnings of our history as a country.

I hope this actually change, because for to grow as a country, it is extremely important to preserve traditions, but adjusting to the present.

Here I leave a link , about Paikea's history, I hope that they enjoy it!! http://activitiesnow.com/wwmagazine/Christchurch/pages/page_50.pdf

The Black Panther Party for Self Defense

This time I will talk about the BPP because for me, they were very interesting for the reason that I still don’t know if they are good or bad people, I mean, obviously they were good with their owns and because they fought for their rights, they were human beings like everyone, but discriminated by their skin color, so if you look at them by that point of view, they were really good GOOD people, but at the same time, THEY KILLED PEOPLE because they thought that was the only way to do things.

The Black Panther Party was a revolutionary organization founded by P. Newton in 1966 and he had a very solid vision for this “the vision of the Black Panther Party was to serve the needs of the oppressed people in our communities and defend them against their oppressors.”  And it was inspired by Malcolm X in the use of violence, because violence was the only language that white racist understood.

The Black Panther did really good things, they opened school for black people of poor neighborhoods, because they want their children go to school because they wanted that they have a good life, were the “white people” respected them. They have food and clothes on black churches, because for them hunger was one of the means for oppression and that must be helped.

But after all this, they always acted with violence! They just killed people and with that, they just brought more death and nothing changed.

If a have been there, I don’t know how I've probably acted in a situation like that, I don’t know If I just fought with guns or just sit and watched how everything was destroyed around me, I probably would be proud of this people that fight with such determinism for something that they believe is the right thing, but I don’t know if I could stay in the front line with them, I mean, really fighting with guns and killing people…

And there will be always the same question that I can’t answer…they were good or bad people? Maybe you will say it’s depends, but depends of what?

Finally they dissolved in 1982 because they started to separate in little groups until it was just a few members, because they were really young and politically disorganized.

Here is a movie about them, you can watch it if you want, it show how was their life and how was being a black panther member, hope you like it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOOi7z9wXC4

thank you for your time :D

Maori people : HEI TIKI

The maori people came from Polynesia and hawai, they arrived to New Zealand and there they try to keep tradition up of their cultures. He maori word means “local” or “native”. They characterize to be warriors and won war. The tattoos are really important in their lifes, in fact the face tattoo is the most important, his name is “moko”. Today still there are men that wear that tattoos. I think that this culture is really interesting because they have costum that doesn´t disappear at the moment and they have a lot of traditions interesting like the aotearoa haka, that is a ritual before their games, they show their tongues to scare their enemies and demonstrate they didn’t have fear of them. It is really amazing thing to me, when I saw it I believe that they are stronger and all of that. Maybe they pretended that were strong to won the war because the other felt intimidate with their ritual. When we see something like that we feel interested, don’t you? Here in our country is weird see something of the aboriginal people just of Mapuche people but hey are like aloof of us. Other thing attractive of this people is a figure that his head is warped, it is represent a human fetus, this is a souvenir his name is Hei Tiki and is normal in many places. This represented fertility to the women and for that the women bring put like a collar. They have own language is the maori but they talk English too. The movie that we saw today make me interesting me in this culture and I looking for information about that but I decide choose the video.

Here I let you a video of Haka, I hope you like this like me. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L11jcvY-IM 

Rabbit- Proof Fence.

Contextualization

 In 1930 Australian democracy, practiced not very usual forms for social planning

- Separated the mestizos from the aboriginal communities in which theywere born and enclosed them  in special schools where they were trained to serve whites, as seen in the book.

Referring to the book the rabbit-proof fence in Australia is a historical fact. 

 A British colonist Thomas Austin brought 24 wild rabbits from the UK  in order to raise this species for human consumption.

But this situation went out of control and the rabbits  population started to grow unmeasuraly which led them to escape from this  zone.

  

By the end of the century the amount of rabbits was  was equal to or even greater than the number of the inhabitants of the continent, hence, it was suggested fencing part of the continent in  order to protect grazing land.

my comment

In my opinión as much as the book as the movie “Rabbit on the proof fence” has allowed me to deal with severa topics and stereotypes, we can see  discrimination and persecution from white people against the black by transforming them into their slaves instead of their friends.

I believe within this last few days I have centered myself in the vision from the first unit, mainly in segregation and discrimination which I find very interesting due to the social and moral topics because this makes us realize some of our mistakes and falls, like when we try to look like something we are not or we don’t know and we have no idea how it might affect other people.

This book touched me from beginning to end  and left us a lesson about what is really important, no matter the color of our skin or gender, within our lives. The important thing is our integrity.

I would like to share something I have written on Reaction paper.

“I believe that the enemy is in ourselves and we all need to start a revolution for the people, for ourselves, in us are the words “DO NOT STAY IN SILENCE”, we must take the actions to react, not let us trample and enforce our rights, end for once with all the discrimination and be part of it, the answers is in ourselves we need to create a belief and make it the change. We all deserve a normal lifestyle without pointing out our acts and mistakes.”

Why wait for a leader or a manager? We can move the world with our ideas.

I found this poem on the Internet, this speaks for itself. :

Rabbit - Proof  Fence  poem

 Take away from my home

Ripped away  from my family

All because I´m a halft cast

I'm force to abandom my cultural ways

I'm forced to abandon my language

Sometimes it feel like there is no sun in the sky

No justice against  crime

 It seem quite  hopeless

Im loosing  all my faith,

I need to break free

I need  to escape

Along  with my sister and cousin

I´ll  run as fast as I can with them by my side

I know it  won't  be easy

It's a long  way to go

But I won't  loose hope

Many will try to harm us

 Many will try to trick us

But I won't loose hope

I'm almost back where I belong

I'm almost back to jingalong

 With the spirit bird guiding us every step of the way

My hearts fills with joy

I feel a familiar warmth

I feel a familiar breeze

 I'm finally back where I belong

After all the pain and suffering

After all the  lies and injustice

I'm finally back to Jigalong

And from that day on I knew

That  it was my duty

To never leave.

and finally the hints with a video trailer of the film, which takes us through the major scenes book and one of the most important when it is violently removed from their home.

Thanks (:

By Diego  Azocar Helo.

MARRIED TO HER COUNTRY.

So far, we've seen a lot of different cultures from English-speaking countries and, to be honest, I didn't know half of them, actually, I only knew about USA and England... Shame on me, right? I know, but I never been that good at history.

So yes,  I have learnt new things about cultures and lifestyles in these classes, also the changes through the centuries and I believe, rather, I know that culture is people's most important thing.

We saw, in one of our classes, the movie "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and, before that, we had studied the historical context where the movie were set. There is when you get to realize how much culture has changed during the last centuries, minds were too closed and every mistake was payed with the life itself. 

If you take a look at the way people live nowadays, you wouldn't find so insane that a woman don't get married. But in that time (XVI century) the fact that the Queen, Elizabeth I, never got married to anyone was the strangest thing ever. She had many marriage proposals and she rejected them, even when she did find love, she let it go... Why?, well, she had this idea of being "The Virgin Queen", because she had to be "faithful" to her country, as she was married to it.

Would any woman of the XXI century, in charge of a nation, abstain of loving, of having a family and even stay virgin because of an ideology? Nowadays, most people put themselves first, and prioritize their own happiness before anyone else's.

But, thinking it through, if Elizabeth I had never done that sacrifice, she probably wouldn't be the legend she is today.

* For more information about the life and reing of Elizabeth I, visit the web site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/elizabeth_I

A great speech from a great Queen

While I was looking for information about Queen Elizabeth, this site came out: 

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/elizabeth.htm

The first thing that came to my mind was "Woow this seems interesting", so of course I started to read it, as I was reading it, a scene from the movie "Elizabeth: The Golden Age", which we saw in class came to my mind: Elizabeth riding a horse wearing a shining armor and talking to her troops before the battle against Spain. 

As I continue to read the website, the speech that the Queen gave was there, so what Im going to do now is to put some phrases that caught my attention. The first one is 

"but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people" I think this phrase represents the commitement and respect the Queen had for her people and for her kingdom; this kind of phrase can be see through all the speech, so of course this was one of the things that made her one of the greatest queen  of England.

Another phrase is "And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even the dust." While I was re-reading this phrase, it gave me the same feeling as the quote from above, this words can only come from a person who is truly commited to what she does or thinks, so as I see it in moments like this when the people of England where giving their all for their country, their Queen was giving her all too, for them. This is the moment where you can appreciate the human side of Elizabeth. 

My lasts words about the speech are that this can only came from a Queen like Elizabeth, a queen that treats her country as her life, with the same value; a queen that practically is like a mother to her people. A queen that gave her life to serve her kingdom and that of course as a reward she gain the respect of all of us and a place is the history of England. 

What are your toughts about this speech? Do you think her words are from the heart or just words to please her troops ? 

Queen Elizabeth I as a human being

 In the movie Elizabeth, the queen is represented as a warrior,lover,ruler,etc 

But for me the most important role that she played was as a  human being

that can make mistakes,be afraid of the challenges of being a queen,and be a 

human with needs.

The love that she felt for the pirat was forbiden for her so she has to feel 

that love throgh her young servant, but with consequences that she did not 

consider at all. 

Additionally she felt temerous and insecure because her Catholic cousin Mary,

Queen of Scots wanted her dead.So Elizabeth has to confront many conspirations

against her.

Finally at the end of the movie we can see that Elizabeth I has to fight for her nation,

and she get married with England because before being a woman and a human being,

she is queen that has to protect her country despite her needs or fears.

She becomes the Virgin Queen , a queen who does not need a man with her in order

to rule her country.