Hello Michael

I am just curious as to how the last few months of weaning and feeding of your son has gone? What is his diet like now that he is getting a lot older and more independent?

Cheerio
Treis

Hi Treisee, welcome to this forum. In the words of the Lakota oyate (the allied people) ... "Mitakuye Oyasin" (we are all related).

Hello Phil, Ka pai (thank you) for the welcome, I have been here for around a year but have been a bit of a lurker really, just reading and soaking in what others have to say about this WOE.

Did you know that Russell Means, a Lakota activist, started a "T.R.E.A.T.Y. Total Immersion School" system which he says "is based on the successes achieved by the Total Immersion School experience of the Maori Peoples in New Zealand"? Do you know anything about the  "Total Immersion School" system in New Zealand?

I haven't heard of Russell Means, but I do know of the Total Immersion School system. It is very popular here in NZ with Maori families that are fluent speakers of Maori (called Te Reo) and who use it as their primary language at home. This is a video on one of the first TI Schools in NZ called Te Hoani Waititi. It is not far from where I live. I do not send my own children to a Maori school mainly because we are a homeschooling family, but if they would be attending a school of some sort then a TIS would be the first place I would send them. They are very effective in raising children up in their culture and language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxmdG-FDsNQ

I haven't noticed anyone referring to the Maori as hunter gatherers in this thread, nor did Weston Price use the term "hunter gatherers" or "Paleo" people for the Maori, nor I think for anyone else, in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Price did refer to pygmies and tribes of the Nile as "hunters". Are you referring perhaps to a different thread or a different book or article?

Weston Price didn't use the specific term "hunter gatherers" or "Paleo" people but he did title his first chapter in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
as 'Why Seek Wisdom from Primitive Races'.  With a quick look online to a thesaurus on the word primitive, it comes up with;
Main Entry:   primitive
Part of Speech:   adjective
Definition:   barbaric, crude
Synonyms:    animal, atavistic, austere, barbarian, barbarous, brutish, childlike, fierce, ignorant, naive, natural, nonliterate, preliterate, raw, rough, rude, rudimentary, savage, simple, uncivilized, uncultivated, uncultured, underdeveloped, undeveloped, undomesticated, unlearned, unrefined, unsophisticated, untamed, untaught, untrained, untutored, vestigial, wild.

These synonyms speak to me of some of the characteristics that have been associated with hunter/gatherers and Paleo types of people and my using those specific words was just a way of speaking to those in this thread in general language that many would clearly understand especially when we are in a forum that is focused on Paleos and their way of eating.

The Maori people have been seen in NZ as hunters and gatherers. It is a part of the history and social structures of NZ to see Maori in this way, as it helps to clearly define the Maori into a class of peoples that is entirely different from the class of Europeans that arrived here later in history who would define themselves as cultured, sophisticated, educated and definitely not wild like they saw the Maoris as. So in effect I was not referring to any specific book or article but I was referring to an outlook and idea that is pervasive in the society of NZ as a whole.

Can you share more about them or do you have a good source to refer us to so we can learn more about the "Mori Ori"?

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en Is a great place to start study on Maoris, and there are pieces on the Mori Oris also.

I think people generally fare better in the long run when they adapt to their local habitat and try to live somewhat in harmony with nature.

I agree with you, and the Maori people are amazing specimens of health and vitality when they adapt to living here in NZ. As soon as they begin to eat the modern diet they quickly succumb to many diseases such as diabetes, obesity etc. NZ is a wonderful place to eat the Paleo way, we have easy access to pure and natural foods that are close by and in abundance, we can hunt, gather, raise and grow many beautiful delicious foods but sadly many Maori choose to turn away from them in favor of modern convenience food, we see it everywhere across the country.
Our government has undertaken many educational campaigns to try stem the tide of ill health that is plaguing our country, but we seem to be following in the same footsteps as America, and very few people are listening much less changing the way they eat and sadly it is prevalent in those of my own race.
 
A Maori saying;

He aha te painga o nga kai reka a te Pakeha - o te rare, o te keke, o te purini, o te winika, o te pepa, o te waipiro?
What benefit is there in the sweet food of the Pakeha - lollies, cakes, puddings, vinegar, pepper and alcohol?

Kahore kau
None at all

Pakeha= White man, New Zealander of European descent, Connotations of a flea.