Swings + Roundabouts Winter 2021

seen leaves become marshmallows, as tamariki insert their ‘marshmallows’ onto sticks before moving small tree stumps and large branches from a recent trimming of trees into seats and an outdoor fire. I’ve heard the retelling of how Māui discovered how to make fire as tamariki rub 'found' wood together. Seeing the environment in a different way can also encourage a sense of belonging and connection to place such as noticing whether there are there more birds or less birds or maybe even different birds at different times of the year. The kindergarten I work in is close to an estuary and throughout the year we see different birdlife and especially noted are our local black swans, as parts of the year we don’t have any close by, and we also seem to have a small family of swans who visit the same nesting site in winter and sometimes summer. In spring and summer when our harakeke and pōhutukawa are in flower we see more Tui and in late summer we’ve often noticed more stranded jellyfish drying up during our frequent visits to the bay outside our kindergarten. Being able to play in nature landscapes Jørgensen (2016) argues are stepping- stones for tamariki’s attachment and fostering of an environmental consciousness as they make connections and deepen their understanding of their own selves as co- habiting with other living animals. Jørgensen (2016) also describes how a ‘sense of wonder’ is developed when tamariki are given time and space to explore the outdoors with tamariki’s curiosity and emotional involvement being fostered. Wonder, says Jørgensen (2016) occurs when tamariki experience these existential encounters and which encourage tamariki to act, using their own judgements, ethics or creativity. But here in Aotearoa New Zealand, time spent in nature and in ‘our place’ also offers tamariki an opportunity to being kaitiaki (guardian) to their local environment through making connections to Māori cosmology and the genealogical connection between the original parents Papatūānuki, and Ranginui and their offspring, the Atua o te ao Māori including Tāwhirmatea (Atua of weather/wind), Tangaroa (Atua of the seas/oceans and Tane Māhuta (Atua of the forests, which forest creatures and humans are descendants from) (Alcock & Ritchie, 2017) and which is reflected in our early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 2017): “ Kaiako support mokopuna to engage respectably with and to have aroha for Papatūānuku. They encourage an understanding of Kaitiakitanga and the responsibilities of being a kaitiaki by, for example, caring for rivers, native forest and birds ” (p. 33). Alcock and Ritchie (2017) describe how the Māori understanding of tākaro (play) emphasises that “play and playfulness are processes that come alive in the living worlds of nature: forest, bush, parks, with rain, water, wind and sky … and the activity of playing there provokes feelings: felt but invisible third spaces that emerge in- between and amongst players and place” (p. 85). Alcock and Ritchie (2017) then describe how this in-between space allows “culture, spirituality, emotion, art and play to emerge and are recreated” (p. 85). This connection and responsibility can be supported through local Māori knowledge from Mana Whenua including tikanga Māori (Māori traditions) and engaging with pūrākau (Māori traditional stories) (Alcock and Ritchie, 2017). To support tamariki’s sense of belonging to their place and surrounding natural environment the Te Whāriki online resource, Tuia Mātauranga and local histories explores a variety of inquiry questions to guide kaiako June 2021 { 31 }