Talk:Marae

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Hmmm a bit new zealand maori centred article. You can find marae eslewhere in Polynesia (french polynesia, Cook Islands), with different architetures


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[edit] Marae (Copied from Kahuroa's talk page)

Nice picture of the Ra'iatean Taputapuatea. I noticed you deleted from the text the reference to the rarotongan taputapuatea, which is also a marae located at avarua behind Makea Palace. Anyway the two marae are linked. According to local korero, the rarotongan one was built by Tangi'ia in XIIIth century (confirmed by archeology). The central stone (a'u/ahu) of the Rarotonga taputapuatea was taken by Tangi'ia from the Ra'iatean marae, when he stopped there on his way from Tahiti to Rarotonga. Nevers

Oh thanks for the clarification.Kahuroa 19:04, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
It's me again :) A'u (mck)/ahu (ty) is the big central stone. Border stones or wooden posts are called au. The word would be according to Savage dictionary a contraction of purau or Lemon Hibiscus whose wood was used to enclose the marae. Nevers
OK - thanks. Re ahu - same word in NZ Māori/Easter Island/Marquesan ahu and many others, Tongan afu(a) - it comes from proto-Polynesian *ʻafu with the reconstructed meaning 'heap up; a heap or raised place'. Probably better not to include the Rarotongan word au for the border stones or posts at this stage since the section is about marae all over Polynesia. Kahuroa 23:43, 18 September 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Picture Gallery

I restored the picture gallery. I have also pic of several Huahine marae and others of Rarotonga but it's on a dv camera tape so i have to transfer it on my computer and it takes time. I'll do it this week end Nevers

[edit] Stub

I think this article is long enough to remmove the 'stub' template, if there are no objections I'll go ahead? Lossenelin 06:31, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

No, marae article is not over. Are we in a hury ? It is still a stub Nevers

[edit] Marae/Whare

I'm no expert in te reo, but I'm pretty sure 'marae' and 'whare' don't mean the same thing (and the article suggests this too). So why does 'whare' get re-directed here? Surely whare should get their own page. --Helenalex 07:52, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Finally, I think that this article should be split. If I well understood, today in New Zealand the whare nui (meeting house) is a part of modern marae. This is not the case for instance in Cook Islands. Each tapere (sub tribe), has also a meeting house for its community but nowadays it is totally distinct from the marae, even if in the old time marae could also be considered as a meeting place. In French Polynesia the concept of meeting house does not exist, or perhaps the church or the "bar" or "bistrot" (french version of the british pub) it depends on persons. Elsewhere in Polynesia I do not know. So one should split the article in
  • Marae : general considerations on marae in Polynesia
  • Marae in New Zealand or whatever title
  • And articles on Marae in various polynesian archipelagoes if anyone want to write them.

Nevers

[edit] size?

Just as an uninformed reader, I would find it helpful if sizes could be discussed. How big/small do Marae get? Are they generally smallish places -- say 100 m on a side? (Just guessing from the first picture.) Do they get larger? Or smaller? (The one at the University seems to be really just a patch of grass.) A little discussion of this in the intro would be very helpful for someone like me who doesn't know if they're whole areas or more like a church or Zen garden. Thanks. Otherwise, great article. 69.17.73.214 (talk) 03:19, 18 January 2008 (UTC)