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Storytelling is a fundamental part of human culture. Through myths and legends we pass on our visions, values, feelings and memories in a way that is enjoyable and entertaining.

For Keas and Cubs, this could be a story telling option.
For Scouts, they determine how they are going to do this activity.

To encourage conversation and buy in from your youth members, go through the story below to help put together a guide for expected behaviour in/with your group for all.
Working in small teams, first create a list of good group behaviour - that align with our SCOUT values and the Youth Yellow Card (NZ) https://www.scouts.org.nz/
Have each small team select one or two items on their list.
Direct each small team to create a myth designed to teach that behaviour.
Have each small team share their myth with the whole group.

Resources

any props that might help the creative juices, paper, pens or board to capture ideas.

Ideas and suggestions from;
http://eng.mataurangamaori.tki.org.nz/Support-materials/Te-Reo-Maori/Maori-Myths-Legends-and-Contemporary-Stories

https://www.careers.govt.nz/resources/tools-and-activities/the-magic-of-myths/rona-and-the-moonko-rona-me-te-marama/

https://theculturetrip.com/middle-east/iran/articles/13-delightful-childrens-stories-from-around-the-world/

Or below

Instructions

Maori Myths
Māui and the giant fish
Māui dreamed of the day that he could go fishing with his older brothers. Each time his brothers returned from a fishing trip Māui would ask, "Next time, can I come fishing with you?"

But Māui's brothers would always make an excuse. "No you're much too young to come fishing with us. We need all the room in our waka for the many fish that we catch."

Te Ika-a-Māui
"I'll only take up a little bit of room, and I'll stay out of trouble, I promise," Māui would argue.

The eldest brother would reply, "You're so skinny we might mistake you for some bait and throw you overboard for the fish to eat."

Māui would get angry. "I'll teach them, he'd say to himself, "I'll prove how good I am!"

Secretly Māui hatched a plan to prove he was a great fisherman. One night when Māui was alone he began weaving a strong fishing line from flax. As he wove he recited an old karakia to give his fishing line strength.

When he was finished, Māui took a jawbone which his ancestor Murirangawhenua had given him, and bound it securely to the line. Early the next morning, Māui took his fishing line and secreted himself in the hull of his brothers' canoe.

When Māui's brothers pulled the canoe into the sea they noticed something a little different.

"The canoe is much heavier this morning, are you sure you're helping?" said one.

"I think you've been eating too much kumara!" said another.

"Stop your bickering and get on with it!" said the eldest brother.

None of the brothers noticed Māui hiding in the hull. When Māui heard his brothers drop the anchor, he knew they were too far from land to return. Māui revealed himself to his brothers' surprise.

"What!"

"What are you doing here?"

"You tricked us!"

"No wonder we have not caught one single fish!"

The brothers were angry with Māui, but Māui spoke up.

"I have come to fish because Murirangawhenua said I would be a great fisherman. Let your lines down as I say my karakia and you'll catch more fish than you ever have." Māui began his karakia.

The brothers threw their lines into the water and instantly began catching fish. One after another they pulled their fish into the waka. In no time the waka was full and the brothers were delighted with their catch.

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"We're the best fishermen ever!" the brothers congratulated each other.

"Now it is my turn to fish," said Māui.

The brothers laughed when Māui pulled his fishing line from his bag.

"Huh, you'll be lucky to catch a piece of seaweed with that!"

"Or maybe a piece of driftwood to float home on!"

The brothers couldn't contain their laughter. Māui didn't listen, instead he recited his karakia and readied his line. "Can you give me some bait for my hook?" Māui asked his brothers.

But the brothers only laughed harder so Māui clenched his fist and hit himself hard on the nose. His nose bled and Māui covered his hook with his own blood. Māui then stood at the front of the canoe and whirled his line above his head as he recited his karakia. He spun his line out to sea, the line sunk deep to the ocean floor, down into the depths of the domain of Tangaroa, and instantly the hook was taken.

Māui's line went suddenly taut. The brothers stopped their laughing and held tightly to the side of the waka as they began to speed across the ocean.

"Cut the line!" a brother called, clearly quaking in his seat.

"We'll all be drowned," said another. "Please Māui cut the line!"

But Māui held tight to his line, and slowly a giant fish was pulled to the surface. The brothers huddled in the waka shivering with fright. The giant fish towered over their small canoe.

"This is the fish that our grandmother, Murirangawhenua, said would be gifted to us," Māui said. "Guard our fish, and I'll soon return with our people."

The brothers agreed to stay, and Māui headed back to Hawaiki. However as soon as Māui had gone, the brothers began chopping greedily at the huge fish, claiming huge pieces of it as their own.

When Māui returned, his people were amazed to see the giant fish.

"Māui is the best fisherman ever," they marvelled.

As they neared the brothers were seen still chopping and arguing over which part of the fish was theirs. The people saw them for the greedy brothers that they were. They were so greedy that they had chopped huge gullies and mountains from the fish's flesh.

Over many hundreds and thousands of years, these gullies and mountains became part of the landscape of Aotearoa as we know it today. Birds, plants, animals and the people of Hawaiki populated the giant fish of Māui. And in time Māui's giant fish became known as the North Island of Aotearoa, and Māui's canoe the South island.

This is the story of Māui and the giant fish.

(c) Wiremu Grace

How Māui brought fire to the world
One evening, after eating a hearty meal, Māui lay beside his fire staring into the flames. He watched the flames flicker and dance and thought to himself, "I wonder where fire comes from."

Māui, being the curious person that he was, decided that he needed to find out. In the middle of the night, while everyone was sleeping, Māui went from village to village and extinguished all the fires until not a single fire burned in the world. He then went back to his whare and waited.

The next morning there was an uproar in the village.

"How can we cook our breakfast, there's no fire!" called a worried mother.

"How will we keep warm at night?" cried another.

"We can't possibly live without fire!" the villagers said to one another.

The people of the village were very frightened. They asked Taranga, who was their rangatira, to help solve the problem.

"Someone will have to go and see the great goddess, Mahuika, and ask her for fire," said Taranga.

None of the villagers were eager to meet Mahuika, they had all heard of the scorching mountain where she lived. So Māui offered to set out in search of Mahuika, secretly glad that his plan had worked.

Māui rāua ko Mahuika
"Be very careful," said Taranga. "Although you are a descendant of Mahuika she will not take kindly to you if you try and trick her."

"I'll find the great ancestress Mahuika and bring fire back to the world," Māui assured his mother.

Māui walked to the scorching mountain to the end of the earth following the instructions from his mother and found a huge mountain glowing red hot with heat. At the base of the mountain Māui saw a cave entrance. Before he entered, Māui whispered a special karakia to himself as protection from what lay beyond. But nothing could prepare Māui for what he saw when he entered the sacred mountain of Mahuika.

Mahuika, the goddess, rose up before him, fire burning from every pore of her body, her hair a mass of flames, her arms outstretched, and with only black holes where her eyes once were. She sniffed the air.

"Who is this mortal that dares to enter my dwelling?"

Māui gathered the courage to speak, "It is I, Māui, son of Taranga."

"Huh!" Yelled Mahuika. "Māui, the son of Taranga?"

"Yes the last born, Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga."

"Well then, Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga, welcome, welcome to the essence of the flame, welcome my grandchild."

Mahuika stepped closer to Māui, taking a deep sniff of his scent. Māui stood completely still, even though the flames from Mahuika's skin were unbearably hot.

"So... why do you come, Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga?" Mahuika finally asked.

Māui said, "The fires of the world have been extinguished, I have come to ask you for fire." Mahuika listened carefully to Māui, and then she laughed. She pulled a fingernail from one of her burning fingers and gave it to him.

"Take this fire as a gift to your people. Honour this fire as you honour me."

So Māui left the house of Mahuika taking with him the fingernail of fire.

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As Māui walked along the side of the road he thought to himself, "What if Mahuika had no fire left, then where would she get her fire from?"

Māui couldn't contain his curiosity. He quickly threw the fingernail into a stream and headed back to Mahuika's cave.

"I tripped and fell," said Māui. "Could I please have another?"

Mahuika was in a good mood. She hadn't spoken to someone in quite some time and she liked Māui. She gladly gave Māui another of her fingernails.

But Māui soon extinguished this fingernail as well and returned to Mahuika with another excuse.

"A fish splashed my flame as I was crossing the river," Māui said.

Mahuika provided another of her fingernails, not suspecting that she was being tricked.

This continued for most of the day until Mahuika had used all her fingernails and had even given up her toenails. When Māui returned to ask for another, Mahuika was furious. She knew Māui had been tricking her and threw the burning toenail to the ground.

Instantly Māui was surrounded by fire and chased from the cave.

Māui changed himself into a hawk and escaped to the sky, but the flames burned so high that they singed the underside of his wings, turning them a glowing red.

Māui dived towards a river, hoping to avoid the flames in the coolness of the water, but the immense heat made the water boil.

Māui was desperate. He called on his ancestor Tāwhirimātea for help. "Tāwhirimātea atua o ngā hau e whā, āwhinatia mai!"

Then, a mass of clouds gathered and a torrent of rain fell to put out the many fires. Mahuika's mountain of fire no longer burned hot.

Mahuika had lost much of her power, but still she was not giving up. She took her very last toenail and threw it at Māui in anger. The toenail of fire missed Māui and flew into the trees, planting itself in the Mahoe tree, the Tōtara, the Patete, the Pukatea, and the Kaikōmako trees. These trees cherished and held onto the fire of Mahuika, considering it a great gift.

When Māui returned to his village he didn't bring back fire as the villagers had expected. Instead he brought back dry wood from the Kaikōmako tree and showed them how to rub the dry sticks together forming friction which would eventually start a fire. The villagers were very happy to be able to cook their food once more and to have the warmth of their fires at night to comfort them.

Māui satisfied his curiosity in finding the origin of fire, although he very nearly paid the ultimate price in doing so. To this day the Kahu, the native hawk of Aotearoa, still retains the red singed feathers on the underside of its wings, a reminder of how close Māui was to death.

This is the story of how Māui brought fire to the world.

(c) Wiremu Grace

Tags

• code of ethics
• safe from harm
• Yellow
• Youth card

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