Please walk right in underneath
the grove of tree ferns.
Notice how it has become
darker here.
In Tahitian and Maori the verb
Pō means
"It's becoming dark."
Adding
-nga to it gives the noun
pōnga;
evening, dusk, nightfall.
Hence the general name for tree ferns is
pōnga,
which most Pakeha New Zealanders call pungas.
KIDS
As you walk along point out
"Pōnga! It's DARK
underneath!"
TEENAGERS
Where did the word PŌNGA come from?
GROWN-UPS
Look at the dead fronds on the
ground and think of your ancestors, to whom you owe so much,
then at the young fronds, the pītau, curling
out out of the top of the trunk where they are protected by
the older fronds, then think about our next generation of
children whom we must protect.
This is why whorls feature so
much in Maori carving.
