"Pōhā: A Clever Way of Storing Food", School Journal, level 2, August 2014
11 August 2014
Before freezers, one traditional way of storing food was to pack it into pōhā. Pōhā are bags made out of a special kind of kelp called rimurapa. Some Māori still make pōhā. They are used to store tītī meat.
This School Journal article describes harvesting the tītī and creating the pōhā. You can also find out about other uses for rimurapa (kelp).
You can find a PDF version of this article, the teacher support materials, and the audio files on Literacy Online: "Pōhā A clever way of storing food".
Other useful resources
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Exploring food packaging
Students explore food packaging, including pōhā, to develop understandings of technological products.
Discussion starters
- Characteristics of technological outcomes: Use this and other examples to identify social and/or environmental issues that may have influenced particular technological practices and/or the attributes of outcomes produced. (level 2)
- Characteristics of technology: Use this and other examples to describe the relationship between technology and the made and natural world. (level 2)
- Technological products: Identify the performance properties of the rimurapa (kelp) and identify how the rimurapa has been manipulated into pōhā. (level 1) Describe the performance properties of a range of materials, including rimurapa, and use these to suggest things the materials could be used for. (level 2)