Big bugs and beautiful butterflies.

9 minutes ago
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Write On on Rēkohu (Part 2)

As March drew to an end, two of our tutors (Kate Preece and Heather McQuillan) collaborated with the three tiny schools on Rēkohu | Wharekauri |The Chatham Islands. We worked with 23 young writers over three days at the stunning Kōpinga Marae — the only Moriori marae in existence.

Here are some of Heather's notes:

Discovering Bugs

Those who know me know I like bugs and writing about bugs! And Kate wrote her fabulous book A Butterfly Fluttered By about Kahukura (The Chatham Island red admiral butterfly), which plays an island-wide game of hide and seek with other bugs.

As Kate and I started planning, we were aware that the Chatham Islands Museum is preparing for a display of the amazing bugs found on Rēkohu, Pitt Island, and the rest of the archipelago. This was an amazing opportunity to connect the writing with a real community purpose.

The bugs of the Chatham Islands are extra fascinating and characterised by "island gigantism." They are big! And a little odd. There's the longest insect in all of New Zealand (the Giant Stick Insect), a spider species with no males (Ranagatira Spider), and a Click Beetle that has lost its defensive click strategy.

I set about gathering photos and information on some local bugs and others from the mainland.

Giant Stick Insect
Ranagtira Spider
A clickless Click Beetle

The Writing

We explored these bugs as writers and scientists by "Taking Notice", digging into the information, and relating our own experiences.

The young writers then responded in different ways. A couple of options were to:

A. Take a "Persona" approach by stepping into the exoskeleton of the bug and seeing the world from its perspective.

B. Write a personal Ode to the bug, extolling its virtues ( or otherwise) and taking a stance about its place in the world.

Stepping into exoskeletons to explore verbs
Discovering more about bugs
With two tutors, it was a great opportunity for lots of 1:1 chat and feedback

Here are a few snippets ( I had so many I wanted to choose - these are but a delicious snack sample!)

Your wings are splattered

with green and black, like

the camo pants that I threw out.

Matai Year 8

Rango Pango,

your patterned wings

remind me of stained-glass windows.

But you are still a pest.

Roman Year 7

Dear praying mantis

with lightning-fast legs,

you’d slash a bug, like we cut bread.

Ocean Year 7

You — apple green bug

with an ear to your chest

and your weird-shaped face

living all the “greens”

Archer Year 7

You only live on a few islands

with your fat, round abdomen,

hard, shiny thorax

patterned like a leather snakeskin

and pointy midnight fangs to match.

Morgan Year 8

Your bristly brown skin is a magical trick

to make you look, oh, so like a stick.

Henry Year 8

Your delicate wings carry such a great body.

How do you flutter gracefully around me?

Poppy Year 8,

Hallelujah, Big Boy,

Your body is like a battle-balloon.

I like your black and yellow death spikes.

Your two antennae — they look like a rail gun.

You are a war machine!

Zion, Year 7

Your babies are fierce hunters.

You are strong warriors.

Wairua Year 8

Humanzzz think I’m annoying,

because I buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Zzzzzzzz

Zzz around.

They want to smack me out the window

and squish my black hairy body

Saylor, Year 5

I have eight fuzzy long legs

and six beads as eyes.

My sticky legs cling to sticks.

My eyes see everything

Douglas Year 5

I sing about the air,

my stripy body,

and how good it is to be tiny

and free.

kihikihi kihikihi.

Connor Year 5

Imaginations Let Loose Again

Then we let loose with the imaginations again as the students created their own bugs, wrote a "scientific report" aiming to use specific words and details and then wrote an encounter story about how their bug was discovered. Some bugs were delightful and others deadly! This resulted in much laughter and excitement about sharing.

More exploring

I also managed to explore the island further with our fabulous tour guide, Kate.

We visited Owenga and were able to see across to Pitt Island, where some of the tamariki live. Then we visited the famous basalt columns, which are so well preserved. We even saw wild emus running down the hill and across the road. You'll need to zoom in to see them on the horizon. Rēkohu was full of surprises.