Acquiring taonga
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Transcript
- Student from Morrinsville College
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Is it better to be given a taonga like a weapon, or is it better to go out and earn?
- Dion
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I believe one should earn a taonga, as well as gift. This whole idea about going out and buying a taonga, is quite a foreign whakaaro to a lot of Māori. It most probably is quite foreign to your own whānau i.e. when you go to a 21st, in most cases usually something quite significant is given, either a kuru pounamu, and I’ve heard of cases where a mere pounamu has been given during that time. In this day and age, I actually like to make my own taonga because I can make it to my own specifications. When someone else makes a taonga, they make it to what they know and what they understand. You’re able to take artistic licence with your own taonga. That’s the great opportunity of working with taonga; you have the world’s greatest templates at your fingertips. And so I am able to fashion the likes of tewhatewha, taiaha, the likes of patu rākau, and use…not necessarily use, but be guided by our tūpuna’s teachings and our tūpuna’s taonga. So I hope that answers your question.