Kuta/Kiekie Harvesting

Wednesday 27th of May, Nga Here Kahikatea went on a class trip down south to Hari Hari. The main reason for our trip was to go to Lake Ianthe to harvest Kiekie and Kuta. First we went down close to the lake and talked about how we were to harvest the Kuta from the water. If you want to harvest Kuta properly you will need to get into the water, it’s about knee deep, you need to pick the Kuta from the bottom of the plant by gently tugging on the plant. Majority of the boys in our class got in the water and harvested the Kuta while the girls were taking photos and videos for evidence. After you’ve collected enough Kuta, place it on a tarp, towel or something that’ll keep the plant dry. 

Then after harvesting the Kuta and eating some kai while the boys got changed into dry clothes we found some Kiekie plants that would be good for harvesting. Once you’ve found a good plant to harvest make sure to snap the branch at the bottom. When you’ve got your Kiekie branches start stripping the leaves off, then size your leaves by grabbing them in an even pile of seven on each side then put them in one hand evenly then run your hand half way up the leaves and let go of the bottom so the shorter ones fall into a pile, then do that one more time a little higher to have your medium sized leaves. After you’ve put them into their piles grab one and look at where the white strip on the leaf is because all you want is those white strips, so cut/peel the green bits off your leaves. You should end up with two white strips from one leaf. After we’ve got all our little strips of the Kiekie we then put them on a tarp or towel to dry because we are using the Kiekie and Kuta for weaving, then grab all the leftover pieces of the Kiekie and make sure to place them back where you got them from.

Hangi report

The hangi preparation started March 18th, the ngahere kāhikatea class went to Whare Manaaki. First we introduced ourselves to the Whānau that also came to help, then went over details and sorted out what everyone was doing. I first helped peel the cabbage so we could use it to pack the food into our baskets (we used it as a liner for the baskets). After that I helped cut the potatoes and kumara, there was a lot, like two tubs full. After I had finished cutting them I went to see how the hole was being dug. The boys digging found an element from an oven and an old pipe. By the time I got out to the hole they were basically done within about 20 minutes. As I went inside to see what was going on Matua Gordy asked if I wanted to film people so I took that opportunity and was asking people a few questions while filming them making buns, stuffing and packing the meat in the baskets. After about 30 minutes of filming I decided to help with the stuffing because everyone decided to walk away from it so I helped Gordy. There was about to huge pots full of bread that we had picked apart. Then after that a couple of the boys mixed onions and melted butter into the bread to finish the stuffing. While they were mixing the stuffing Hayley and I made some fry bread. After we had finished all out meal preparations we then headed inside to set up a table of kai for the people that were in a meeting and as they came out of the rooms we sung waiata, then we ate some kai with them. We then said goodbye and left back to school.