Haere. Farewell Jack, Farewell Activities

Haere: Farewell, Jack, farewell

written by Tim Tipene

illustrated by Huhanna Smith

published by Huia, 2006.

This story is told through the eyes of a young child who is mourning the loss of her Koro Jack. The story reflects traditional Maori beliefs and protocols surrounding the death of a whanau member. The text describes what is happening at a ‘human’ level – sharing stories and songs, taking them down to the marae, funeral and burial. The emotive illustrations show traditional ideas at a deeper level – tupuna (ancestors) are shown as shadowy white figures in the room and in the sky shadows can be seen, representing death. When a new baby Jack is born to the narrator’s sister, the theme of the circle of life is apparent to the reader – a new life begins as an old life passes on. This is a story about the importance of family and of losing a loved one.

Please note that these activities are suggestions which have not yet been trialled. We welcome any feedback on how they play out in the classroom (see the feedback section).

Activity 1: TE REO MAORI (English)
NZ Curriculum Level 1 & 2

(see curriculum links at the end of the activity)
NZC Key Competencies
  • thinking
  • using language, symbols and text
  • relating to others
Activity 1. As you read this story with children, write the Maori words which occur in a place where everyone can see them.

2. After reading, revisit the words and discuss them with the children.

  • Do you know what these words say? Let’s read them together.
  • What language are these words in?
  • Why are they in this story?

3. Let’s find out what these words mean.

  • Some children may bring prior knowledge to this task and be able to share some word meanings. Others may require further investigation. A Maori-English dictionary may be useful (see ‘Resources’ for a weblink).
  • Look again through the story at the context in which the word is used. What could this word mean?

Help children to find all word meanings. Write them up beside the Maori words.

The following words occur in the story:

Koro
(grandfather)		 marae
(meeting house)
manuhiri
(visitors/ guests)		 whanau
(extended family)
hapu
(pregnant)		 wharekai
(dining room)
urupa
(burial ground)		 tupuna
(ancestors)
haere ra
(farewell)		 kai
(food)
waiata
(song)

4. Establish that there are many different words for things in many different languages, and even within the same language.

For example, ‘Koro’ is the word for grandfather in this story. What other words could we use?

Children may use other Māori or English words, or a word from a different culture –poppa, opa, papa, grand-pere, etc ..
Resources
  • Māori-English dictionary:

http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/
Taking it further
  • Discuss other Maori words we know, and their meanings (English)
  • Work with a partner to practice using the words in a sentence (link to Learning Languages)
  • Discuss why some people use more Maori words than others (Social Science)
  • Discuss how English has borrowed words from many languages. Give students a list to look up the origins of. For example, curry, yacht, cookie, ballet, pizza, theatre, aeroplane, kindergarten, muesli, graffiti
  • This book has a te reo version: ‘Haere’. You could invite a fluent Maori speaker/ reader to read this book to the class. On each page, ask students to identify familiar words, then look at how sentences have been constructed around these known words.
Curriculum Links English

Listening, Reading and Viewing

  • recognize and identify ideas within and across texts (Level 1)
  • recognize and begin to understand how language features are used for effect within and across texts (Level 1)
  • show some understanding of ideas within, across and beyond texts (Level 2)
  • show some understanding of how language features are used for effect within and across texts (Level 2)
Applications for Level 3 and above At Levels 3 and 4, children are expected to begin to use cultural knowledge to communicate appropriately. When discussing things Māori (such as a funeral) they should learn to use the relevant Māori vocabulary. Some of this is given in the story, however they can research further and find more vocabulary associated with an event – either a death, or another event of their choosing. They should also begin to compare and contrast languages and cultural practices.
Links to other books in NZPBC Watercress Tuna and the children of Champion Street

– the story is about different Pacific Island cultural practices and other languages that are used.
Activity 2: LOSING A LOVED ONE (English)
NZ Curriculum Level 1, 2 & 3

(see curriculum links at the end of the activity)
NZC Key Competencies
  • thinking
  • using language, symbols and text
  • relating to others
Activity 1. Read the story with the children. After reading, establish that the narrator is a young boy whose Koro (grandfather) has just died.
  • How might the boy have been feeling? How do we know this?

The illustrations show a lots of emotion.

  • Discuss the illustrations, in particular, the shadowy figures (tupuna) and the images in the sky – what do these mean?
  • Identify what happens in the story after Koro has died

– they stay with his body, they cry, they take him to the marae, whanau and manuhiri come and they put up photos of Koro. Everyone talked and sang to Koro, and told stories about him. Finally they buried him in the urupa.

2. Encourage the children to share their own thoughts about losing a loved person or pet. Some may have already experienced this, some may not have.

  • What did you do when your loved one died?
  • Was it like in the story? Or different?
  • How did you feel?

3. This could lead on to writing about losing a loved person or pet. Children could write about what happened and how they felt at the time. How did others feel and act? What helped you to change the way you were feeling? How do you remember that person or pet now?

  • If children do not have a memory of their own, they could recount the story of Jack in Haere: farewell, Jack, farewell.

4. The children’s writing could be published and put together in a class book, if appropriate, for children to look back over.

They will see that everyone grieves the loss of a loved one in different ways – both culturally and personally.
Curriculum Links English

Listening, Reading and Viewing

  • recognise and identify ideas within and across texts (Level 1)
  • show some understanding of ideas within, across and beyond texts (Level 2)
  • show a developing understanding of ideas within, across and beyond texts (Level 3)

Speaking, Writing and Presenting

  • Speaking, writing and form and express ideas on a range of topics (Level 1)
  • Select, form and express ideas on a range of topics (Level 2)
  • Select, form and communicate ideas on a range of topics (Level 3)
Applications for Level 4 and above Death is hard at all ages. This is a topic which could be talked and written about at all levels of the curriculum, using the book as a starting point.
Links to other books in NZPBC Old Hu-Hu- A young hu-hu bug deals with the death of his beloved Old Hu-hu
Activity 3: INTERVIEWING A GRANDPARENT (English/ Social Science)
NZ Curriculum Level 1 & 2

(see curriculum links at the end of the activity)
NZC Key Competencies
  • thinking
  • using language, symbols and text
  • relating to others
  • participating and contributing
Activity In the story, one of the ways that the family deals with the grief of losing their Koro is by sharing their memories of him when he was younger.

1. Ask the children to think of a grandparent (or older person they know), who they would like to interview. Encourage them to think about what life might have been like for this person as a child:

  • What do you think life was like for them when they were a child?
  • Did they go to school? Would it have been like school is now, or different?
  • What do you think they liked to do in their spare time?

They wouldn’t have had TV, computers or playstations, I wonder what they did all the time?

  • Did they have brothers or sisters? I wonder if they had their own bedroom, or if they had to share…

2. Ask the children to write down some interview questions that they could ask, to find out what memories their grandparent has from when they were a child.

  • At Level 1, there may be only 2 or 3 questions.
  • At Level 2, children should come up with more specific questions to probe for more detailed memories.

Share questions.

3. Children then complete interviews as a homework task. They might also like to collect a photo of their grandparent as a child to bring back to school to share.

4. Once the interviews have taken place, children can share their findings with the class and present the information in a variety of ways:

  • Story and illustration (Level 1 & 2)
  • Poster (Level 2)
  • Report (Level 2)
Taking it further
  • Children could create a venn diagram to show what is the same and different about life for a child then and now (Maths)
Curriculum Links English
  • acquire and begin to use sources of information, processes and strategies to identify, form and express ideas (Level 1)
  • select and use sources of information, processes and strategies with some confidence to identify, form and express ideas (Level 2)

Social Science

  • understand how the past is important to people (Level 1)
  • understand how time and change affect people’s lives (Level 2)
Applications for Level 3 and above At Level 6, students begin to understand how the causes and consequences of past events that are of significance to New Zealanders shape the lives of people and society. For example, students could interview an older person who was alive during World War 2, or some other major event, and consider how it has impacted their life.
Links to other books in NZPBC After the war – A man returns home from the war to begin his life again.