Marsden Bay

Tattoo Design

Symbol, Symbolic and Symbolism 

Symbol, Symbolic and Symbolism may sound the same but they aren't all the same. As symbol means something that represents a day, a person or a object even letters.  Symbolic is something that has been illustrated, representative and emblematic. Symbolism pretty much sums the other 2 up as is the use of symbols to represent the ideas or qualities.

Sentences using these words.

"You could all tell that the shops were getting ready for christmas, they all showed this by adding the symbols which represent christmas."
" When shopping I could see jack lanterns and pumpkins which are symbolic for Halloween"
" Every time an event comes mum always believes in the importance of symbolism in Decorations"

Sulu'ape Video Recount

After looking at these words and what they meant we learnt about a samoan family who are all tattooist. The family was Sulu'ape, we watched a video of one of the family members who took on residency at the Auckland University The video showed another man who was called Faliniko Tominiko.

The video showed us the process and what it takes to get a Pe'a. Watching the video I curled up and had moments were I just closed my eyes. Because it looked so painful and scary that I couldn't take it all in. We watched more of the parts to this and in each of them we found out more.

To learn more about the Pe'a click here.

Mini Project

We got assigned a mini project for extension the project was to design a tattoo that represented our culture and another one representing us. Asking around my family about whats something that is symbolic in our family I got all sorts of answers. Turtle, Centipede, Flowers, Birds, Dolphins and many more patterns.

For my cultural tattoo I decided to combine both my Nuiean and Cook Island side. I interpreted some creatures that meant something to the island or our tribe. Also things that mean something to our family.     

The creatures I used were Onu and the Unga. A Onu is a turtle in Cook Island and a Unga is a coconut crab in Nuiean. I also combined some other creatures like the dolphin and the kakaia bird.
                                              
Along with those I decided to add a vaka which is a canoe in Cook Island. I chose this because back in the island my great grandfather was a legendary fisherman. On the Vaka you will see flowers which represent the beautiful Tiare maori and Jasmines that live back on the Island. To fill in the gaps I put some patterns that both of my cultures put on Tapa cloths.

To represent myself I decided to do things that I find interesting. Of course I only did the important things, not that i'm not important. But I did the things that didn't only represent me but was meaningful to others around me, for example my parents.             

I included some spears which is symbolic for protection and strength. In the middle I added a heart with two Korus in the centre. This shows the symbol of love and the Korus represent my country Aotearoa.
                   
The shape of it may look a little quirky but it's actually the shape of a dogs paw. I added a little dab of creativity by adding the shape of a turtle to both the palm and the paws. In each paw it either shows by passion and something I find beautiful. In the middle paw is my birthday because i've always wanted an established tattoo. Also it marks the day when I came into this world which is full of opportunities.

I've realised that the inside of the body of the turtle or the palm of the paw actually represents my personality. As I am protective on the outside but nice on the inside.

I've really took this opportunity to take a deeper look in to the art of both tattoos and my culture. I've learnt more about my culture and my family also I had the time to take a look into what I like and the things that surround me.

So heres my tattoos of both my culture and me. Ashlee

Cultural ( Left )  

This is my tattoo that represents my culture.

                                                          


Conclusion                      

Elections

ELECTIONS

The 2014 New Zealand Elections had come and gone. The numbers of people that had placed their votes was colossal. This had taken place on the 20th of September. Driving anywhere around New Zealand you could tell that elections were coming up, due to billboards and people waving signs around.

On the day you would see orange signs with bold writing spelling Vote with a black arrow pointing at places. One of the paces were you saw the signs would be at my school Point England. It was available for the community to come together and place their votes.

Rules

Election is a very serious time for New Zealand and many more countries. One of the rules are so serious that you could get fined up to 20,000 dollars.  In the weekends our very own Rugby Player Jonah Lamu was fined 20,000 dollars for posting who he voted for. In between the hours of 9am - 4pm you are not aloud to post or say who you voted for.

Policies

Labour
One of the policies including Education and Kids are that there will be the best start for all kiwi kids. The policies means that they will give parents more time to be parents also that kiwi kids will succeed in school and through out the community.

National
Did you know that National is investing 1.1 million dollars on building schools in Christchurch. The money will be going towards constructing 13 new schools on new sites. Rebuilding 10 schools on their existing sites and redeveloping 92 schools.

Quotes

"Did you know that Labour hasn't won this bad since 1920" Quoted by Isara Nua

Humour

Story line's Festival

Over 600 kids from schools all over Auckland went to the Manukau events Center on Thursday to see some of their favorite authors, also to listen to some other amazing New Zealand authors to. Why you ask because they are apart of the Story line's Festival.

There were only 4 speakers with all inspiring books and tales. They showed the books that they did and how they came to be the person that they are. All 4 of them were girls and there names were Juliette Mclver, Cath Mayo, Jill MacGregor and Paula Green. You might remember them or may there your favorite authors.

My 2 favorite authors from that day was Juliette Mclver and Jill MacGregor. Because they kept me entertain and I wasn't bored when they were speaking about their books. Another reason was because they were both wacky and lit up the room with laughs.

If I had the opportunity to speak at the Story line's festival I would, something I would have liked to ask them was how old were they when they decided they wanted to be an author. Was it on purpose or accident.

Tragic House Fire

Last week a horrible house fire happened in Hamilton. It was a terrible tragedy that took the life of three young people aged 17, 19 and 23. The fire broke out after a party that was held in Collingwood street. There was four that escaped the blaze they were Bayley Reid, 17, of Hamilton, Raine Tarawa, of Tauranga, Joseph Soutar, of Tauranga and Michael Heyes, of New Plymouth. They escaped by jumping out of windows with just minor injuries.

With every one else the four survivors payed their respects to those who were killed in the blaze. Not only did they have funerals for the families to remember them by they also had a lantern commemoration. The Police arrested three people on that night for being disrespectful and also four teenagers for drinking vigil outside the house.

Police are still investigating the house fire and who might have caused the tragedy. They were looking for video footage of the party. What they already know is that earlier on in the night a fight broke out that night over someone taking a beer.

Mr Tele'a/ Pe'a

As part of Art Attack the extension group took a deeper look at symbolism. We looked at the different cultures and the symbols tat represent them. They got inspired by the things that use to help them when times were rough like objects, animals, creatures and plants.

To give us some more information Mrs Tele'a brought in her husband to show us his Pe'a. We got to ask some questions about the process, his feelings, and more and more about the tattoo. One of us asked about the design and if he got to pick the design or if the tattooist designed it himself. The answer was the tattooist had studied his tribe and family and had a picture in his head that he had free styled on to his skin.

Since we had already been studying the subject we got a few minutes to work as a group and come up with some questions that we could ask him when he arrived here they are.

Questions and Answers:

1. Josephine - Would you mind if your sons got a tatau too?
2. Josephine - Which family did your tattoo?
3. Ashlee - Did you ever have a moment where you didn't want to complete the process
4. Ashlee - Was it a choice or a must.
5. What did you want to do when you were getting your tattoo done?
6. How long did it take to get it done?

     7.

1. He would be proud of his son if he got a Pe'a but it wouldn't be something he would force him to do as it's his choice. Another worry would be if he could handle the long process and the pain.

2. As their are two very famous families in Samoa that are known very well for doing tattoos we decided to ask who done his Pe'a. We found out that it was a guy named Tuifa'asisina Su'a. Which was part of the Su'a family.

3. Sometimes but he kept going because and unfinished Pe'a is called a Pe'a muku which is embarrassing to walk around with an unfinished Pe'a.

4. To find out if it was more a must by his parents and family or if he had chose to get his Pe'a done. Finding out our answer we discovered that he had chosen to get his Pe'a done.

5. Someone from our group had asked what he wanted to do when getting his tattoo done. He said that he just wanted it to be finished and over.

6. The process is quite long and one of their superstitions is that when getting a Pe'a done you must have a Partner, which is called a Soa to get the tattoo done with. Which made the process longer but the days it took to get his and his Soa Pe'a done was 17 days.

Here are some of the photos that we captured.

Back

 
Where the tattoo starts is called a canoe
Below is some patterns and designs.
Some represent things that helped them survive when times were tough also some sea creatures and other types of creatures. Also things that mean something to either them or their tribe.

                                                                                   Inside Thigh

For those who don't know what a Pe'a is it is a Samoan tattoo that goes from the belly button down to about their knees. The tattoo isn't just for Samoan men but also women can get them. 

Front Legs

The tattoos are like a bat wrapped around you with patterns cause if you were to unwrap it of your body and place it on a paper it would look like a big picture.

Immersion Assembly Term 4

“ Give it up for Team 4 “ Mr Burt announced with a tinge of excitement in his voice. The teachers from team 4 stood up, while wearing their disguises and walked upto the stage getting ready to wow us with their topic. Which they were going to be looking into during this term.

Standing in a formatted line the 5 famous artists held up their most valuable paintings. That they had brought to see which the audience preferred, this was held in our very own school hall ! They were a variety of different artists from different places in the world.

To help us pick which artist the audience preferred, they all had a speech prepared.

It helped us know a little bit about  where they were from and the techniques they liked to use also the inspiration they got while in the process of these paintings. Some of the techniques they used while painting was a steady stroke, dabbing the brush and doing blobs.

All describing where they were from and the different techniques they used. Majority of them had carried an accent from the previous countries, they were in. Even though some of them weren’t accurate they still made people laugh.

Here are the artist that were re enacted and cloned.

Fatu Fe’uu (Samoan)

Vincent Van Gogh   ( bandaged ear)

Pablo Picasso  (cubism) angular

Monet (French accent)

George Seurat  pointillism dots