Share Our Garden!: Virtual Road Trip~Maori Art

"Quit hanging on the handrails...
Let go.
Surrender.
Go for the ride of YOUR life.
Do it every day.

TODAY'S SEEDS OF WISDOM

JUST BLOOMED TODAY
TWEET TREATS
GARDEN UPDATE
VIRTUAL ROAD TRIP~MAORI ART
FAUNA
GARDEN GIGGLE
WHAT IN THE WORLD? OVER THE FENCE
FEEDBACK

JUST BLOOMED TODAY

TWEET TREATS

(Editor's Note:We are introducing this new feature to bring you the quirky, funniest and most interesting tweets from Twitter that we came across. If you come across one you'd like to share, please do!)

Don't wanna jinx anything- but I think
I may've found my dream scissors @leemanish

GARDEN UPDATE

Took a chance and picked some apricots and left them in the sun to see if they would ripen some more. The birds are already getting to them and if this works, we'll be picking them all tomorrow.

VIRTUAL ROAD TRIP~MAORI ART
Yesterday I introduced you to the beautiful land of my forefathers, New Zealand. Today I would like to introduce you to their indigenous people, the Maori.

These wonderful Polynesian people are the natives of the land. Because their ancestors traveled from the Pacific Islands, their art is rich in symbolism. Maori art is inseparable from Maori culture. It is like a living organism that exists in the spirit of the Maori people and drives them toward wider horizons and greater achievement.

The Maori have a warrior culture, as they protected their lands from foreign invasion. They call themselves, in their own language, tangata whenua, or people of the land. They had elaborate facial tattoos, especially on their tongues to add to their warrior appearance.

Of course, being an indigenous people, their art reflects their culture. Many of the men would go out on the ocean to find food, and the women would sing to them from the shore. They carved their own canoes from native trees. They did many carvings to depict their history of the sea and their ancestors.

A 20th century carving depicting the mythical navigator KUPE fighting two sea creatures

Many of their living structures were decorated with carvings of their ancestors and telling their story.

Many of the art carvings were done of natural materials, such as totara wood, jade, bone and stone. The women were great weavers, making baskets for their daily use and their clothes from reeds and natural woven materials. They used the feathers of the kiwi for a chief's robe.

Their architecture depicts many carvings and would tell the purpose of the structure. Below is a Maori Meeting House (similar to a City Hall in our time).

I love their art, because it is so pure and shows their primitive history. They honor the old gods, although most of today's Maori's are Christian.

A Maori god made from jade

They also bring in their natural surroundings. Many of their motifs are based on the fiddleleaf fern and the aquatic life, such as the whale and the porpoise.

Their art is so distinctive, I can immediately tell a piece of Maori art. The fierceness of the people, combined with their love of nature and their land can find a place in your heart.

GARDEN GIGGLE