By Seth Hoffman

I’ve been a busy fella here in Wellington. I’m going to try and sum up the past few weeks in this entry. The focus of today’s blog entry is “connections.” You never know where, what, or who one connection will lead to. When I first arrived in Wellington, I was lucky enough to stay in the apartment of Fulbright Alumni Malcolm McKinnon.

Through Malcolm, I met his wonderful friend Keith. After telling Keith that I am seeking out musical outlets and community, he connected me with his friend Patricia, who is part of a ukulele club. Here is a little clip of the magic that happens here.

This group is facilitated by the talented, hardworking, encouraging, and inspirational Shane McAlister. He is a musical soul brother of mine. He spreads joy through teaching and performing music to the world.

Check out his sweet ride.

Now that’s what I call arriving to the gig in style.One day I was walking down the road to find a nice place to do some busking (playing music on the street).

I found a nice place to play by the water. This lady approached me and told me I could not play there. She pointed to some places not far away that I was allowed to play music. I thanked her, and we got to talking. She detected my accent (yes I have an accent, I was quite excited to learn this) and asked what I was doing here in New Zealand. I explained that I am here to look at the role of music and the arts in education. She told me about her son and his work with teaching Maori and Kapa Haka.

Kapa Haka

Kapa Haka is the term for Māori performing arts and literally means to form a line (kapa) and dance (haka). Kapa haka is an avenue for Maori people to express and showcase their heritage and cultural Polynesian identity through song and dance. So, I connected with her son Matiu. I contacted Matiu over Facebook and explained who I am and what I’m doing (and that I met his mother).

I asked if I might sit in on some of his classes. He told me to meet him outside the Paekakariki train station a few days later, and I could accompany on a full day of teaching.

Ticket to Ride

I got my train ticket to Paekakariki (about an hour ride north of Central Wellington). As you may know or remember about the “hongi” from my earlier blog entry: A hongi is a traditional Māori greeting in New Zealand. It is done by pressing one’s nose and forehead (at the same time) to another person at an encounter.It is used at traditional meetings among Māori people and on major ceremonies and serves a similar purpose to a formal handshake in modern western culture, and indeed a hongi is often used in conjunction with one.

In the hongi, the ha (or breath of life), is exchanged and intermingled. The breath of life can also be interpreted as the sharing of both party’s souls.

He taught hongi to some students. The students are very respectful and the connection they have with each other is beautiful. It was powerful to see these kids doing Kapa Haka.

Between classes, I met the school principal who told me to feel free to walk around and check out the campus. He encouraged me to look at the school garden. I was curious to see how it compared with our lovely garden at Mountain Mahogany Community School.

I met these great kids who gave me a tour of the garden. They snacked on various plants (just like the kids at MMCS). After a full day of teaching students,

Matiu was asked to present at the staff meeting to teach some Maori to the teachers. The teachers and principal really wanted to improve their Maori pronunciation and understanding.

This man is a hard worker, a talented musician and teacher, and he is really passionate about what he does.

These schools are truly fortunate to have him working with their community.

Connecting Opportunities

My Fulbright host family is the couple Bill and Sally Barrett. Sally happens to be the wonderful principal at Wadestown School. She welcomed me to do some musical activities with some classes here.

Another connection I made is with the advisor or my fellow Fulbrighter, Shahnaz. His name is Bruce Carey. He’s not only a great professor, but he’s also a great songwriter and performer.

Through Bruce, I met this other talented singer/songwriter/guitarist Chris Moses.

Bruce is the person who told me about the great open mic at The Fringe Bar, which led to my first New Zealand gig. Both Bruce and Chris opened for me at the Fringe Bar on Friday March 13th 2015.

I’ll end this entry here for now. Stay tuned for some more photos and video clips of the culture here in Welllington, New Zealand. I’ll be visiting several more schools these next couple weeks.For now, won’t you join me in some delicious gelato?

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Seth Hoffman

Community Publishing will be publishing a Multimedia Book written and Illustrated by Seth Hoffman titled, Janie and the Hummingbird. Seth is a musician, artist and educator based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Follow his adventures here every Tuesday. 

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