Author Archives: bartowwe

How the Kiwi Lost It’s Wings

Piece:

How the Kiwi Lost It’s Wings

One day Tanemahuta, the god of the forest, rounds up all of the birds and says that there are too many bugs on the floor of the forest eating the trees. If one of the birds doesn’t go down to eat all of the bugs, the trees will all be killed and the birds will have nowhere to build their nests. First he asks the Tui, but the Tui says that he’s too afraid of the dark on the forest floor. So Tanemahuta brands him as a coward with a white scarf (white tuft) around his neck. Then he asks Pukeko “will you come down to the forest floor.” And Pukeko says “no the mud is too rough and it will hurt my feet.” So Tanemahuta curses Pukeko so that he now lives in swamps. Then he asks Pipiwharauroa, who says, “no I can’t, I’m building a nest.” And then he curses Pipiwharauroa so that he can never build a nest again. Then he asks the kiwi. And Kiwi knows that somebody has to do it, so he will. So then he grows thick legs, and a long beak to put in the mud and to get rid of his beautiful feathers for ugly brown ones. And then Tanemahuta rewards the kiwi by making him the most beloved bird in the world.

 

Informant & Context:

My informant for this piece is a USC student from New Zealand who lived in Auckland for 18 years. The story she is telling is a Maui origin story about how the Kiwi lost its wings and became the bird of New Zealand. A more complete version of the story can be found here: http://www.kiwinewz.com/html/losewing.htm

 

Thoughts:

This is a very interesting story about an act of selflessness. It is interesting to me, not only because I do not have anything similar to say about the bald eagle and how it became the symbol of America, but also because the story originates from the aboriginal Maui people of New Zealand. My informant is a white New Zealander, who is not part of that group, however she called this a traditional New Zealand story—implying that all of New Zealand culture is shared.

The Origins of New Zealand (Maui Origin Story

Piece:

The origins of new Zealand – myth (Maui)

“So, Maui is the son of Rangi (sky father) and Papa (mother). He wanted to fishing one day, but his brothers wouldn’t let him. So he made a hook out of, like, a magic jawbone or something and then he hid in a boat. I’m not sure why he hid, but his brothers were mean to him or something. Then he caught a really, really, really big fish that is the North Island. It’s so big that they fall out of the boat or something and the boat is the south island. And his brothers don’t wait to pray to someone before cutting up the fish. And that’s why there are mountains and rivers and gullies in the North Island.”

Informant & Context:

My informant for this piece is a USC student from New Zealand who lived in Auckland for 18 years. The story she is telling is a Maui origin story about how New Zealand came into existence.

Thoughts:

This is a very relaxed approach to storytelling. The unabridged Maui origin story can be found here: http://www.newzealand.com/us/feature/the-legend-of-new-zealand/. The vast majority of the points match, but a lot of the details of the story have been removed in my informants version.  I find it incredibly interesting to hear a white person from New Zealand telling aboriginal origin stories. To me this indicates a more concrete sense of heritage in the country, and a more collective sense of identity for the country.

Food in New Zealand

Piece:

“So what do you eat normally in New Zealand?”

“We eat a lot of lamb. There are 13 sheep for every person in New Zealand. I guess… mince (minced meat) and cheese pies. We eat that a lot. It’s like a normal lunch or dinner food. But it’s like too normal to be our cultural food…”

“So what’s your cultural food?”

“Well there’s a lot of dessert. Do you know Pavlova? It’s like a meringue cake. Oh and there’s Hangi. It’s like the traditional form of cooking in New Zealand. Meat gets buried underground for like 8 hours. It’s this real smokey flavor. ”

Informant & Context:

My informant for this piece is a USC student from New Zealand who lived in Auckland for 18 years. She is speaking about cultural food in both senses: the first being food she commonly eats, and the second being historical or traditional food.

Regarding Hangi: it is a traditional Maori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven. It is still used in special occasions. (Wikipedia)

Thoughts:

These items of food don’t seem especially odd by western standards. Presumably this is because they take a lot of influence from English culture and English food—where a lot of American culture is rooted as well. It was slightly odd to me that my informant cited a Maori tradition as the cultural food of New Zealand—considering that in the USA, we don’t define traditional American culture as Native American culture.

Johnnystock

Piece:

In melee (Super Smash Brothers Melee, a game by Nintendo) you have 4 stock lives. There’s a player named Johnny who has a habit of playing poorly—he overall is just mediocre and then suddenly you’re just dead.

“So is Johnnystock like the first two lives where he plays poorly?”

No. It’s just like when someone suddenly kills you. Like out of nowhere.

Informant & Context:

My informant for this piece is an active member of the competitive Super Smash Brothers Melee community, which has been active since 2001. He has attended multiple tournaments and watched others on live stream web sources such as Twitch and Youtube.

Thoughts:

This is the first piece of folk speech in video games I’ve recorded that isn’t an insult. Since it is mostly used in verb form (to be Johnnystocked) it serves the purpose of lauding the Johnnystocker rather than chastising the Johnnystocked individual. This is an example of folk speech arising as a manifestation of the actions of those at the center of the community (the professional players).

Freshman-Senior Brawl

Piece:

Freshman-Senior brawl: at the end of each year, the senior boys and freshman boys gather in the schools old gym (this tradition is unknown by the school’s faculty) to have an unofficial freshman-senior brawl to celebrate the moving up of freshman to sophomores and the graduation of seniors moving on from the school. “I do this to you so you can do this to freshman some day.” The idea is that freshmen are hated for being new, young, and naïve and this is the last chance for them to be bullied before they are no longer freshmen. The seniors sort of intentionally go easy on the freshman because they’re 18, whereas the freshmen are 14.

Information & Context:

My informant for this piece is a student at the University of Southern California who graduated from the boarding school (Cate) from which this tradition originates. His knowledge of the tradition dates back between 3 and 11 years ago, though it is reasonable that it has existed for longer.

Thoughts:

It is curious to me that a ceremony of physical violence can be viewed as a positive thing. My informant explained to me that it was seen as a right of passage—after which, both parties move up in the world. I would point out that both parties would move up, regardless of the ceremony, but it is important to note that this is how the community reacts to such a passage. It becomes a “you get bullied now so you get the right to bully later” type of scenario.