Good games provide rich learning systems. Players need emotional flexibility, social complexity, critical thinking, decision-making & cognitive skills, and strategies & processes.
Our relationship with the earth – Papatuanuku – our mother, is never one-sided. She cares for us: we care for her.
Because we brought the change on these islands, it is up to us to find a new balance with the forces of nature deep within the land.
There are no hard and fast rules about how to do this. As in the game – for better or for worse – we make decisions, we try strategies, we co-operate, we do deals.
For we are the kaitiaki (guardians) for our birds.
In the game, the goddess Hine nui te Po, watches over the extinct birds. In the underworld, she holds the memories of those who have passed from the world of light (Te Ao), forever going to the world of darkness (Te Po).
Many birds now remain in her realm. This is a change we wrought.
We cannot go back in time. We are here now, and we must look to the well-being of our mother, if we are to flourish as well.
Life, too, is a rich learning system. Just like the game!