Wednesday 30 September 2020

Story creation notes: Tikanga

My own comic, Ōtea, is an original story that is built upon the bedrock of Māori stories and traditions. As I wrote the first two parts of Ōtea: Rock of Ages, elements of the plot and themes emerged from the application of cultural principles (tikanga). 

Tikanga can be thought of as a set of rules, protocols for living which abound in all folklore and mythology. For example, in The Hobbit, trolls must be underground before sunrise, lest they turn to stone, but this is an old rule from Northern European legend, that Tolkien did not invent, but made use of as an important plot point. As I wrote and illustrated Ōtea, tikanga provided rules for the development of story, allowing characters to act in accordance with their nature, and providing clues for solving plot problems. 

In the Māori belief system, lizards, green geckos in particular , were thought to be omens of evil. In The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Māori Myth & Legend, Margaret Orbell notes: “Green geckos were especially dreaded when they lifted their heads and emitted chattering sounds thought to be laughter. This was a terrible omen” (p. 154).  Mokokata, the green gecko of Ōtea, was named directly from this belief: moko meaning lizard, and kata (or kakakata) meaning laughter.

Saturday 26 September 2020

Thinking about kupu



Te Wiki o te Reo Māori made me think about all the Māori words and phrases (kupu) that I use in the Ōtea comics. Even though the story is primarily written in English, I've tried to incorporate many kupu Māori: names for animals, stars, planets, places and supernatural beings, of course, but also important cultural concepts and whakatauki (proverbs). Here's an example: Ahurei (unique, important, distinguished).

My aim is to weave these Māori words and ideas into the story in a way that makes them meaningful and evocative for the reader.

I decided to go through the first Ōtea comic, Ōtea: Rock of Ages 1, and create a glossary of all the kupu Māori that I used - just to see how many there really were! So here is the Kuputaka (glossary) if you would like to browse it - link in the top menu too.

Sunday 20 September 2020

Te reo Māori: Consonants

 


And finally here is the last Ōtea graphic in the series on te reo Māori pronunciation. It's been great seeing the normalisation of te reo throughout Aotearoa lately - long may it continue!

DOWNLOAD GRAPHIC 4 (pdf file)


You can also download it from our Ordering and free resources page on this blog. 

Friday 18 September 2020

Te reo Māori: Diphthongs


Kia ora, here's the third Ōtea language graphic - this one tackles those tricky vowel combinations.

DOWNLOAD GRAPHIC 3 (pdf file)


You can also download it from our Ordering and free resources page on this blog. 

Thursday 17 September 2020

Te reo Māori: Macrons



Ko te rā tuawhā o te Wiki o te Reo Māori tēnei - it's the fourth day of Māori Language Week, and here's the second Ōtea language graphic helping with pronounciation. This one looks at a little line that makes a lot of difference...

DOWNLOAD GRAPHIC 2 (pdf file)


You can also download it from our Ordering and free resources page on this blog. 

Monday 14 September 2020

Kia kaha te reo Māori!


Ko te rā tuatahi o te Wiki o te Reo Māori tēnei - it's the first day of Māori Language Week 2020! 

This week the world of Ōtea presents a short series of graphics helping you to pronounce the beautiful sounds of te reo.

Here's the first full graphic:

DOWNLOAD GRAPHIC (pdf file)


You can also download it from our Ordering and free resources page on this blog.