EDUCATION (and MENTAL HEALTH)

 

Different cultures and organisations have different ways or organising information.

 

In Maori culture there are commonly three baskets (kete) of knowledge

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• The kete-aronui which held all the knowledge that could help mankind.

• The kete-tuauri which held the knowledge of ritual, memory and prayer.

• and the kete-tuatea which contained knowledge of evil or makutu, which was harmful to mankind.
  
   

Currently in New Zealand educational curriculum knowledge is organised as NZQA units.

• Environment  units could be helped with insights from this web site and fb 'communityreef'.

• In a World that has a fixation on lowering Carbon Dioxide as a path to addressing climate change, our approach is founded instead on accepting that wild fish declines, pollution, species extinctions and climate change are in reality symptoms of something deeper.

• The World Environment Forum would have it that the crisis is rooted in global patterns of human  behaviour that are ecologically unsustainable, socially alienating and economically unjust.

• Adressing these issues call for a much broader range of strategies.

 

​Our REAF organisation of sustainability knowledge is based on our logo which is symbolic of

• Our inter-connectedness,  our actions, Invoking the spirit, our knowledge

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You are welcome to book a visit to our display site at 16 Wharf Street, take a guided walk and talk which outlines these principles and even make your own mauri stone to go on our Opotiki Sea Garden.  Koha donation goes directly to Opotiki Community REAF Trust.

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MENTAL HEALTH

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Getting involved with reef building has beneficial outcomes on ones mental health.

• Being involved in a project that is entirely altruistic in nature expands ones thinking outside of self.

• Giving back to the moana is the antithisis of the prevalent 'take' mentality that leads to what is commonly described as 'the tragedy of the commons'.

• Rebuilding marine life relies on the practice of virtues and values. Knowing the difference gives participants a valuable transferable life skill.

• As a high interest activity, reef building offers an opportunity where 'patterning' can take place, ie sowing a seed of mentally healthy thinking. Once planted the seedling can then be nurtured to fruition.

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