Inati Generalisation

After reading 'Inati' by Neemia Nikotemo and Becca Dobson - Nikotemo the Avengers used a generalisation map to accept the claim 'It is important to keep traditions alive'.

We believe it is important to keep traditions alive. A tradition is the handing down of a culture's beliefs and customs from parents to children over many years. In Atafu, Tokelau a couple of times a week, the villagers have Inati. Inati is a tradition of catching and preparing fish to feed the whole village.

The traditions kept alive in Afatu include each person in the village having a different role during inati. The men go out in the reef and catch the fish, the women prepare some of the fish for a meal to be shared and the children collect the fish. Another tradition is the first child to collect the fish for their family gets to eat a raw tuna heart as a treat. Also they use traditional crafts such as the polapola (containers woven from coconut leaves) to collect the fish.

Without these traditions the villagers of Afatu would have to fish themselves to provide food for their family. The fish caught during inati is shared out depending on the size of the family. For example, Poni’s family has twelve members so receives enough fish to feed twelve people. If Poni was fishing by himself he may only catch one fish meaning his family would go hungry. The tradition of giving a tuna heart to the first child is used as an incentive to encourage the children to quickly collect the fish. Without this tradition the fish may rot in the hot sun waiting to be collected. Using polapola to collect the fish is an important tradition too, using the natural materials means there is very little waste products and no rubbish going to landfill. Tokelau is a small Pacific Island and does not have the same landfills as New Zealand, therefore it is important to cut down on waste.

We accept the generalisation that it is important to keep traditions alive. The village in Tokelau has many traditions that mean everyone has food to eat, food does not go to waste and less rubbish is produced. A tradition we believe that should be kept alive in Aotearoa is ANZAC day. ANZAC day is a day to remember the people who lost their lives in wars that involved New Zealand. It is important to keep this tradition alive so the people who died are never forgot, we learn the lessons of war meaning we can choose carefully which wars to get involved in and it teaches us to respect what others have done for us.

We believe our generalisation is extended abstract because we gave examples of the traditions from the text with supporting evidence. We also put our thinking into a new context by discussing traditions we have in New Zealand.