Maori Willow Platter A Carole Prentice design
I’ll build a whare, big enough for two,
Big enough for two my honey, big enough for two
When we get married, how happy we will be
Under the kowhai, underneath the kowhai tree
When my children were small and went to Te Kura o Hiwihau / Windy Ridge School in Glenfield, Friday assembly always ended with a chorus of enthusiastic group singing led by the fierce but very musical and well respected Maori teacher H.T. Rikihana. One of the items the children particularly liked performing was an exercise in spelling that took the form of a cheeky love song. This innocuous little ditty not only has a memorable and catchy tune but it also demonstrates how language elements in both Maori and English are used together to tell a story.
The Maori Willow pattern similarly fuses different but familiar visual elements by reinventing in design the traditional Chinese tale of thwarted young lovers who, pursued by outraged relatives, escape to an island in the Pacific where they establish a home and find happiness ‘underneath the kowhai tree’.
I’ll build a whare, big enough for two,
Big enough for two my honey, big enough for two
When we get married, how happy we will be
Under the kowhai, underneath the kowhai tree
When my children were small and went to Te Kura o Hiwihau / Windy Ridge School in Glenfield, Friday assembly always ended with a chorus of enthusiastic group singing led by the fierce but very musical and well respected Maori teacher H.T. Rikihana. One of the items the children particularly liked performing was an exercise in spelling that took the form of a cheeky love song. This innocuous little ditty not only has a memorable and catchy tune but it also demonstrates how language elements in both Maori and English are used together to tell a story.
The Maori Willow pattern similarly fuses different but familiar visual elements by reinventing in design the traditional Chinese tale of thwarted young lovers who, pursued by outraged relatives, escape to an island in the Pacific where they establish a home and find happiness ‘underneath the kowhai tree’.
Maori Taniwha & Manaia Platter
A Carole prentice design A reinvention of the traditional Chinese tale of dragon and phoenix. A mixture of known and mythical animal and bird life local to the regions of Aotearoa. 
A children's picture book story THE SEVEN KITES OF MATARIKI Published by Scholastic 2016 NZ Book Awards Finalist for Maori Translation 2017 Can be purchased through your local bookshop. Written by Carole Prentice writing as Calico McClintock. |
