Wooden Māori Alphabet Blocks

Description

Wooden Maori Alphabet Blocks

This imaginative set of Wooden Maori Alphabet blocks consists of marauding gods, numbers, math symbols and the Maori alphabet.

Uncle Goose and Wellington artist Johnson Witehira are the creators of the blocks.
Their hope is that they will help to carry Te Reo Maori through the generations.

Specially designed to educate children, Johnson brings together two cultures (Maori and Pakeha).

The printed wooden blocks feature the Te Reo alphabet.
Furthermore, traditional carving patterns and figures feature from six Iwi around the country.

Like Pou on a Marae, the figures can also be stacked atop one another.
They are interchanged with tuku tuku patterns and letters.

Maori believe language is the lifeforce of their culture and they even have a saying for it!
“Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Maori. Ka ngaro te reo, Ka ngaro taua, pera i te ngaro o te Moa.”

If the language is lost, we will perish like the Moa.

Features:

• 24 blocks in a set
• 4.5cm cubes
• Recommended for ages 2 years and above

JOHNSON, THE DESIGNER SAYS:

In creating the Maori alphabet set with Uncle Goose, I thought that it would be great if we could use them not just for learning the letters, but as a way to learn about the important carving styles.

With this in mind, I decided that the carved figures should be the children of Rangi and Papa. For Maori children, knowing who these figures are and the narrative about the creation of Te Ao Marama and Te Ao Turoa is very important.

Considering this, the six different carved figures created are Tanemahuta, Tangaroa, Tawhirimatea, Haumiatiketike, Rongomatane and Tumatauenga. Each figure holds an item relevant to his character.

For example, Tumatauenga , auta o te pakanga, holds a wahaika (a Maori weapon), while Rongomatane, atua o te kumara me rangimarie, holds a kumara.