Maori/Tjapukai Culture

After visiting both aboriginal tribes, I noticed many similarities and differences. The first similarity that I noticed was that both tribes use their body as a canvas to show their family origin. For the Maori people they would get tattoos specifically on the face to show their background. However, they wouldn’t let the woman get a face tattoo because it was very painful and they never want to put their woman through that pain. Also, the higher up the Maori person ranks in their village the higher up on their face the tattoo goes. If someone has a tattoo all the way up on their forehead then they are most likely very important. The Tjapukai people did the same thing except they wouldn’t get tattoos and instead would paint themselves every day. Most of the Tjapukai were named after an animal or something in the wild. Both tribes were very proud of their family origin and made it public to everyone who look at them. Another similarity between the two tribes is that both tribes would use spears to hunt with and protect themselves with. When visiting the Tjapukai we learned how to throw a spear and when watching the Maori perform their dance they were skilled with a spear. A difference that I saw between the two cultures is that the Tjapukai could only marry from dry to wet season and vis versa, they couldn’t marry the other tribe in the same area otherwise it would be marrying a cousin. When at the Maori village I never learned about anything similar to this, and thought they just married within the tribe. A second difference that I learned is that the Maori tribe has a very serious dance whereas the Tjapukai dance seemed to be more for fun. When at the Maori tribe we were not allowed to smile at all during their ceremony or laugh as that would be considered disrespectful to them. They would use spears and yell throughout the dance and made it seem very intense. The Tjapukai included the whole audience in their dance and made us clap and sing along with them. They also used a digeridoo and other instruments to create sound whereas, the Maori only used their voices and spears.

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