Culture. History.
Culture:
Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!
It is death! It is death! It is life! It is life!
Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!
It is death! It is death! It is life! It is life!
Tenei te tangata puhuru huru
This is the hairy man
Nana nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te ra
Who caused the sun to shine again for me
A upa ... ne! ka upa ... ne!
Up the ladder! Up the ladder!
A upane kaupane whiti te ra!
Up to the top where the sun shines!
Hi!!!
(haka, composed by Te Rauparaha, Ngati Toa Chief)
We're looking back to the times about proud first nations and their stories still without understanding all their knowledge and magic but it is always inspiring to read or watch films about it. Wherever you look: Vikings, First nations, Maya, Maori, Aborigines, Yanomami, Polynesians, Tibetians, First Nation in Canada, Inuit (means people), and America, Rapa Nui, and so many more cultural human tribes and history have been destroyed by humans. Here we are sitting and playing on our smartphones, and computers and just worrying about money and insurance and the news. Sometimes, I'm wondering what happened to us as a society. But of course, we should be grateful, we're living at the best times. Do we? Or do we just know the other cultures from stories.
"Totara, is the most important tree in Maori culture. Indeed totara is so valued that Maori say at the death of an important person, 'Kua kua hinga te totara o te Waonui a Tane' - the totara in the great forest of Tane has fallen. (Totara, A natural and cultural history by Philip Simpson)"
"The Dalai Lama is still known as one of the wisest men. "Life is dear to all. I will pray you will see this is our greatest grant not our weakness."
To return a gift of a friend is unforgivable.
If there is a problem and you can change it, why worry. If there is a problem and you can't change it, why worry (Dalai Lama, Tibetian Saying) out of the movie Seven years in Tibet -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSyr_vJ5t3k)
The Polynesian sailed just led by the sun and stars and streamed on wooden kayaks over the oceans (http://www.hokulea.com/).
The origin of the Nazca Lines is still kind of a mystery.
Indigenous peoples told us about the connection and the spirit of any plant and animal's life and that we can't eat money.
Just a short story about a mask sign of a running race - that's culture. (Answer after asking the RiverValleyRevenge race about the origin of their symbol, of a mask medal, and to remember the Canadian history of Natives)
"Our logo was inspired by an indigenous mythological character, Bak'was, from the Vancouver Island west coast first nations people, Coast Salish.
Ba„was is the Wild Man of the Woods, literal translation "man of the ground embodiment". He is small in size and is the Chief of ghosts or spirits, the spiritual embodiment of everything in the forest."
“I ask you, if you had the power to create all matter, including life, and you could synchronise those creations perfectly, what would you do if one life form was apparently abusing all other life, including themselves?” — Extract from the book the Golden Spruce and the Haida Gwaii, Canada, First Nation. manifesto 'Hadwin's Judgement' (https://www.hadwinsjudgement.com/#titlepage) Disney's Pocahontas (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbFzoDcRjYA)
Have you been to Machu Picchu? Hidden in the jungle and just still marvelous after all these years. (https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/two-pandemics-ecuadorian-amazon-covid-19-and-oil?utm_content=128531767&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&hss_channel=fbp-48485058304)
Did you know that “Ii lani loo” (probably written completely different) means “See you again” in Inuit. Cute, right? That’s what my friend Edwin told me. And Inuit means People while Eskimo means eaters of raw meat, which is quite offensive.
There are so many more little stories but basically all of them are teaching us to respect nature and living in concord to each other, being kind and have gratitude to all life and that we are all one and everything is connected to each other.
In times of old, the world was full of wonder and magic but times change... (Onward - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn5QmllRCn4)
History:
Don't forget to remember!
"I will tell you something about stories (he said)
They aren't just entertainment.
Don't be fooled.
They're all we have, you see,
all we have to fight off
illness and death.
(Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony)
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ...
We can learn from the past, but we should just learn to improve it, not to live it again.
Ole, a friend in the hostel, introduced me to the Feijoa fruit, a delicious fruit of NZ, which I haven’t tried till then. The pattern in the fruit made some art patterns and showed the
“Hakenkreuz”, the in Germany forbidden Nationalism/Hitler sign, which is crazy and a sign of fear and suppression. Luckily another friend told me that it also could be the Swastika sign for Love
and well-being, I didn’t know till then, but so I could decide which one I wanted to focus and believe in.
The Swastika sign was the sign of love and well-being and good fortune and was used for thousands of years in almost every culture (Hindus, Buddhists, Indian sign and also in Europe) before the Nazis used it in the Western World for the last century. Now, it’s banned in Germany and Germany tried to ban it in the whole of Europe. Just a sign changed from a sign of Love into a sign of fear in a historical short time, used by one culture/nation. Nowadays, more people know it as a national socialism sign of fear than as a sign of love in the western world but we should always know and remember, there are always some dualism and two sides in every story and history (https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29644591)
; A Yin and Yang:
“In the black there is some white
In the wrong there is some right
In the dark there is some light
In the blind there is some sight”
Even the word Corona, nowadays just connected to the horrible virus and a time of social distancing had once, just a few months ago, a positive meaning of a crown and crown around the sun and even the meaning of a group of young people coming together to do something together, which is almost sarcasm and the opposite of what it is meaning now.
There is even a poem by Paul Celan, written in 1952 with the title Corona. This poem has all the beautiful words like friend, love, dream, truth and time in it. A Yin and a Yang defined by time and use.
Corona
Autumn is eating a leaf from my hand: we are friends.
We are picking time out of a nut, we teach it to run:
and time rushes back to its shell.
In the mirror it's Sunday,
in dreams people sleep,
the mouth tells the truth.
My eye descends to the sex of my loved one,
we gaze at each other,
we whisper out darkness,
we love one another like poppies and memory,
we sleep like wine in a seashell,
like the sea in the moon's bloody rays.
Embracing we stand by the window, and people look up from
the street:
it is time that they knew!
It is time that the stone grew accustomed to blooming,
that unrest formed a heart.
It is time it was time.
It is time.
There is also a song called “Corona” released in 1984 by the band Minutemen, and today better known as Jackass song.
The song derives its title from Corona Extra, a brand of Mexican beer. Lyrically, "Corona" is a Latino protest song that contains political lines. It subsequently became famous as the theme song for the MTV reality television series Jackass (Wikipedia).
““Corona is very heartfelt,” says former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt “[Guitarist] D. Boon wrote that one on a trip to Mexico. After all the drinking and the partying, the morning after, there’s a lady picking up bottles, to turn them in to get monies for her babies. It really touched him.”
Tragically, Boon would never learn of the song’s legacy. A year after the album’s release, he was killed in a car accident. The song sparks memories in Watt that he still cherishes. “When I hear that – he plays those motifs, that kind of mariachi, I mean, it’s just everything for me. D. Boon, in that song, it really means a lot. Music was personal with us, it’s how we were together, and then the [punk] movement let us do it in front of people.”” (https://www.loudersound.com/features/minutemen-corona-jackass-mike-watt-d-boon-mtv-interview)
Corona/Jackass song:
The people will survive
In their environment
The dirt, scarcity, and the emptiness of our south
The injustice of our greed
The practice we inherit
The dirt, scarcity and the emptiness of our south
There on the beach
I could see it in her eyes
I only had a Corona
Five cent deposit
You write your story with every single step, with every word you continue your part of your own story (Madsen, Du schreibst Geschichte). All of us, anytime and every single moment. We're responsible for our story of life.
How can we be so arrogant, knowledgeable to say we are living in the best time, when more people than ever die of hunger and depression and there is more money than ever paid for the defense industry? Can we be so arrogant to say we are at the highest stand of human development? We might have the technology but what is it worth without a heart, passion and dreams (The Great Dictator Speech by Charlie Chaplin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HdOHrc3OQ).
When I'm looking deep into myself and going back to the quotes of stoicism and that was over 2000 years ago and I can still refer to them, more than to another instagram cat, dog food photo.
Life is not short, we are just wasting most of it (Seneca)
Stoicism:
- Living in accordance with nature
- Devoding to wisdom
- Focus on internal experience of life than external
- Avoiding intense emotions
Culture Again (just because I'm in NZ and I like the Hope and idea of the anthem to give hope and unity)
Maori "Aotearoa" anthem:
1. E Ihowā Atua,
O ngā iwi mātou rā
Āta whakarangona;
Me aroha noa
Kia hua ko te pai;
Kia tau tō atawhai;
Manaakitia mai
Aotearoa
1. O Lord, God,
Of all people
Listen to us,
Cherish us
May good flourish,
May your blessings flow
Defend Aotearoa
2. Ōna mano tāngata
Kiri whero, kiri mā,
Iwi Māori, Pākehā,
Rūpeke katoa,
Nei ka tono ko ngā hē
Māu e whakaahu kē,
Kia ora mārire
Aotearoa
2. Let all people,
Red skin, white skin
Māori, Pakeha
Gather before you
May all our wrongs, we pray,
Be forgiven
So that we might say long live
Aotearoa
3. Tōna mana kia tū!
Tōna kaha kia ū;
Tōna rongo hei pakū
Ki te ao katoa
Aua rawa ngā whawhai
Ngā tutū e tata mai;
Kia tupu nui ai
Aotearoa
3. May it be forever prestigious,
May it go from strength to strength,
May its fame spread far and wide,
Let not strife
Nor dissension ensue,
May it ever be great
Aotearoa
4. Waiho tona takiwā
Ko te ao mārama;
Kia whiti tōna rā
Taiāwhio noa.
Ko te hae me te ngangau
Meinga kia kore kau;
Waiho i te rongo mau
Aotearoa
4. Let its territory
Be ever enlightened
Throughout the land
Let envy and dissension
Be dispelled,
Let peace reign
Over Aotearoa
5. Tōna pai me toitū
Tika rawa, pono pū;
Tōna noho, tāna tū;
Iwi nō Ihowā.
Kaua mōna whakamā;
Kia hau te ingoa;
Kia tū hei tauira;
Aotearoa
5. Let its good features endure,
Let righteousness and honesty prevail
Among the people of God
Let it never be ashamed,
But rather, let its name be known
Thereby becoming the model to emulate
Aotearoa
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