I am a student at in Uru Mānuka. In 2020 I was a year 9 and in 2021 I will be a year 10. This is a place where I will be able to share my learning with you. Please note....some work won't be edited - just my first drafts, so there may be some surface errors. I would love your feedback, comments, thoughts and ideas.
Continuing on the topic of the 'Treaty of Waitangi', this week we are looking at the history of New Zealand's population. Throughout this topic, we also learned the culture of Maori and their beliefs. The graph that we were tasked to create looks at the people the difference between the Maori and Europeans, starting from 1836-1901. Anyway, here is the graph.
What does the graph show us?
The graph shows that as the year progresses, the population of Maori's continue to decline whereas the European's population inclines.
Why do you think the number of Maoris changed?
The Maori's population declined due to the invasion of the Europeans, including their muskets. The introduction and involvement of guns ultimately increased the number of deaths, resulting in the decline of the Maori population. Foreign diseases could also cause the Maori's population.
Why do you think the number of Europeans changed?
Upon the arrival of the Europeans to Aotearoa, they traded with the Maoris as they were pretty less advanced. They then traded with other countries which earned them more money. Additionally, more Europeans came and colonized Aotearoa.
For the last term on Social Studies, we are learning about "Te Tiriti o Waitangi", or The Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty of Waitangi has been taught to us several times, however, we don't fully understand its story. The Treaty of Waitangi was first signed on the 6th of February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and Maori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand.
For our task, we were given different Maori God's to find what deity they had and their equivalent in Roman, Greek and Hindi. Finally, making a poster for one of the Gods and a bit of story about them. I chose to make a poster about Tangaroa, who is the God of the ocean. Here is the poster that I have made.
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organisation that uses non-violent protest and inventive communication to reveal global environmental problems. Additionally, they promote solutions that would result in; a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace can be found universally, as it is home to 26 independent national/regional organisations across 55 countries beyond Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
What have they done to make positive change?
Greenpeace is involved in a variety of issues ranging from protecting our oceans, ancient forests, slowly eliminate fossil fuels and promoting renewable energy to stop climate change, and many more. These issues and factors that they are trying to fix; benefits our environment. However, investigations are also a crucial role in Greenpeace’s campaigns. They use their investigations to unmask those accountable for environmental destruction. Their investigations provide data about environmental crimes and their perpetrators to notify people, thus enabling their campaigns.
What are they doing now to help our oceans?
As mentioned, Greenpeace is also involved in protecting our oceans as they play a critical purpose in our survival. They have thought of a plan of covering the planet in ocean sanctuaries. By covering the planet in ocean sanctuaries, habitats would recover, allowing fish to come back and prevent our ocean from dying.
Ecotourism is officially defined as responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people and involves interpretation and education. Its foremost purpose is uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. (TIES, 2015). Additionally, ecotourism provides numerous advantages to our circumstances as it enhances cultural and environmental awareness, promotes employment and financial opportunities for local people, encourages conservation, and focuses on unadulterated, pristine natural environments. Ecotourism provides both positive and beneficial outcomes for the world, unlike tourism. Tourism, as a whole, has negatively altered the natural beauty of certain places. They have troubled natural resources through over-consumption, frequently in regions where resources are previously limited.
Why is it a growing trend?
As our generation proceeds to modernize our world, we forget that our natural resources are depleting simultaneously as we expand our world to modern technologies. While this issue continues, ecotourism is now being practised all over the planet, gaining popularity. Furthermore, it continues to grow in trend since it has provided several benefits to the locals and economy.
How can tourism help our ocean?
One of the benefits ecotourism offers was environmental awareness this; has increased the ecological concerns of locals and has improved biodiversity and marine conservation.
Is sustainability even possible? Surprisingly, I do believe that sustainable fishing will be possible; as long we all contribute to the idea of being sustainable. A large scale of commercial fishing services can be held accountable for overfishing, as they use different fishing methods such as; purse seining and longlining, which can cause bycatch. Fishers remove more than 77 billion kilograms (170 billion pounds) of marine life each year. Catching too many fish can reduce the fish's population and be unable to replace itself through reproduction. However, it will be challenging to shift to sustainable fishing, as fishing won't be as efficient. Nevertheless, it is still possible as long as we employ restrictions through the consumption of seafood. Aswell, as using different methods of fishing such as; spearfishing and farm fishing.
How is commercial fishing a threat to dolphins and birdlife (bycatch)? Commercial fishing has a vast influence on marine life, as they are captured and killed; accidentally. Birdlife is also affected by this around; 300,000 seabirds drown each year after diving for bait set on longlines and becoming hooked.
Continuing on our Social Studies topic, "Trashing The Planet", we were tasked to create a presentation on sustainable fishing using an unfamiliar software called "Prezi". It was a unique software that was quite challenging to use, however, once I got used to it, I managed to complete my presentation on the said topic. The presentation contained four significant areas to research. These areas are; commercial fishing threatening the ecosystem, by-catch, dolphin-safe labels, and sustainable ways of fishing. Each topic had to be answered using paragraphs strategies; to increase our understanding of how to create paragraphs. Anyway, here is the presentation.
Shark finning is a gruesome practice where a live shark's fins are cut off and harvested. Meanwhile, the rest of the shark is discarded and thrown back into the ocean. Being unable to swim effectively, they sink into the bottom of the ocean to slowly die painfully.
Shark finning delicacy:
The shark's fins are the key ingredient to a well-known Chinese delicacy known as shark fin soup. A delicacy with a purpose, to assert one's rank and privilege, as a soup cost around US$100. Consumed during major events such as weddings, birthdays, business banquets and during Chinese New Year celebrations. A tasteless cuisine with no nutritional value.
How is it impacting our oceans?
During the past 20 years or so, the desire for shark-fin soup has soared. Every year around 73 million sharks are slaughtered for shark fin soup. Due to its non-selective slaughter, it has driven several species to the verge of extinction. Sharks are apex predators that can control species abundance, distribution and diversity, which can influence the health of marine habitats. With the decline of shark species, smaller fish would increase in population since no one is consuming them; the food chain would then collapse and, underwater habitats would undergo consequential damage.
From starting a new term, we have also begun a new topic; trashing the planet. More specifically, about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. We have learned important details about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch or GPGP, such as what it is, how many pieces of garbage are in it, and the effects it on marine life and humans. GPGP is a patch of garbage containing around 1.8 trillion pieces of garbage and is one of the five plastic accumulation zones in our ocean. Overall, it is a significant problem both to our ecosystem, marine life, and us. Anyway, we were tasked to share our information by creating a presentation showing our work.
What is the main passage of this poem? The main passage of this poem is to portray how doing little things can make a difference. As for this poem, starfishes are stranded on the beach and the young man gently throwing them back in the ocean.
Give evidence of this. The poem is about the young man saving the starfish from dying It has been suggested many times throughout the poem such as when he was questioned by a man; "But, young man, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along with it. You can't possibly make a difference!" Then the young man replied with "It made a difference for that one."
As we finished our Parihaka work, we then moved on to ANZAC. As we dived deeper into more details about the ANZAC and the importance of the war, we also learned about the Gallipoli campaign. However, today we are focusing on the last post.
The Last Post:
When do you hear this song? This song can be heard during funerals in Europe, at memorials mainly in the soldier's hometowns. Moreover, the song can also be heard, during moments of remembrance. This is to remember the battles and those who were lost.
Why is this song significant/important to New Zealand? This is significant to New Zealand because it symbolises the soldier's service to our country.
What is the history behind the Last post - Why was it played and when? The Last Post is played in multiple countries of the British Empires. In all of these countries, the song is played, in military funerals. This song is played to commemorate those soldiers who served and those who were lost. It is played during ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day as well as military funerals.
What does this song represent? The song represents those who served and fought in the war. Additionally, mourn the dead and honour those soldiers who were lost in the battles.
For the past few weeks on Social Studies, we have learned about what the slave trade triangle was and how music affected the world. However, this blog post about the use of spirituals, Harriet Tubman, the underground railroad and how they had a big impact to help the slaves escape.
Spirituals:
Spirituals is a type of religious song that was sung in informal gatherings of slaves. These gatherings range from praise houses, outdoor meetings, brush arbour meetings, bush meetings or camp meetings. During these meetings, the members would sing, chant, dance and sometimes enter in a thrilling matter. Spirituals were used to either encourage the slaves, give them hope, in church, funerals, and when permitted; even weddings. They were also used to communicate with each other to help them escape. For example "Go Down Moses".
This song has a hidden message through its lyrics, the song implies the evidence that slavery was uncontrolled in the southern part of America. The Egypt part of the song refers to those slave states, the song then becomes a call to abolitionist (a person who wants to end slavery); to take the slaves and go south to help stop slavery.
About Harriet Tubman:
Harriet Tubman was a famous woman, who was born into slavery and was also an escaped enslaved woman. She became a conductor on the underground railroad and was responsible for helping African slaves to escape. However, this act has caused her to carry a bounty on her head. Yet, she additionally worked as a nurse, a union spy, and a women’s suffrage supporter.
Underground Railroad:
When Harrier Tubman found work as a housekeeper in Philadelphia. She wasn't pleased living in freedom on her own, this resulted in assisting to free her loved ones and friends. The underground railroad was a system that existed in the Northern states. It was already built before the Civil War by which escaped slaves from the South. It was called the underground railroad so that it won't raise any suspicions, as its activities had to be carried out in secret.
How are these events still significant today:
Well, a type of slavery is still occurring today, though, it is now known as human trafficking. Human trafficking is somewhat similar to slavery. The only difference between them is human trafficking is when someone is moved to another place, for the purpose of slavery. Slavery is the exploitation of when they arrive in a specific place.
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