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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 7 (November 1, 1933)

The Wisdom of the Maori

page 62

The Wisdom of the Maori

Terse and epigramatic proverbial expressions, often based on close observation of nature, are frequently heard in the speeches delivered by Maori speakers in ceremonious oratory. The older generation delighted in the use of these whakatauki, which gave point and emphasis to an address. The following are some examples:

Te koura unuhanga roa a Tama. (The crayfish is not easily pulled out of its hole; it is difficult to dislodge a warrior from his stronghold. This was often said of tribes such as those of the Upper Wanganui, who had retreats where they were practically impregnable.)

Me he peka titoki. (Like a branch of the titoki. This tree is noted for its toughness. Used of a people difficult to conquer, or a thing hard to break.)

Maroa-nui-a-Tia, hei kona ra; haere ake tenei, to ake te papa ki te whare. (Farewell, O Maroa, I depart to my home, where I shall shut the door of my house. This is a saying attributed to the chief Uenuku-kopako, of Rotorua, many generations ago. He visited the place called Maroa, so named by Tia, the explorer; it is on the pumice hills between Atiamuri and Taupo. Uenuku was inhospitably received there and when he was going away he used these words, which have become a whakatauki, uttered in reference to a place where one has been treated badly.)

Kia ki ki te rourou iti a Haere. (Fill up my little basket with food, I go atravelling. Said of or by a man setting out on a long and hazardous expedition.)

Te tokanga nui a Noho. (The large food-basket of the Stay-at-homes. Said in contradistinction to the preceding expression. While the traveller must go on short commons, those who remain at home live in luxury. This is the name of the carved meeting-house of the NgatiManiapoto tribe at Te Kuiti.)

Old and New.

As one who has been schooled in much of the mythology and history and philosophy of the ancient race by now-departed wise men of many Maori tribes, I would like to urge the younger generation not to despise what some of them appear inclined to regard as outworn pagan concepts of the Maori. They can assimilate pakeha learning and at the same time try to retain a pride in the past. An example of what I mean comes to mind at the moment, the observances and ritual at the ceremonious opening of a newly-carved meeting-house. It has lately become the custom to import pakeha religious ritual into such occasions, and to discard in whole or in part the excellent and poetical services of the olden race. I have witnessed numerous ceremonies of “taingakawa-whare” in native districts, before the outside element obtruded, and intensely appreciated the eloquent and beautiful ancient prayers for the propitiation of the spirits of the sacred forest, the Wao-Tapu-nui-a-Tane, from whose trees the carved timbers of the house were worked. I have collected several series of these ceremonial services and admired the poetry and symbolism and the wealth of mythological allusion introduced.

With the present revival of woodcarving and other branches of native artcraft, so admirably stimulated and encouraged by the counsel of His Excellency the Governor-General, there could page 63 be a return to the fine old observances embodied in karakia and chant. They are bound up with the true Maori heart and sense of nationality and deserve preference over the new and the unfitting.

Customs of the Past.

Some pakehas who have had the privilege of Maori contacts all their lives and who have seen much of the real Maori in places remote from European influences, are sometimes better qualified to discuss native traditions and customs and ancient lore than the average young native of today, particularly the town-bred Maori, whose environment is chiefly European. The younger generation of Maori should not be above learning from such men, who knew and were helped and instructed by the splendid old learned ones of the race.

A short story of tribal customs told by “Tohunga” and reprinted in a Wellington paper, was quite misapprehended by a young reader, who did not like to be reminded of the fact that his ancestors had been cannibals now and then. The story really illustrated the innate courtesy, chivalry and chieftainlike feeling of the Maori even in war-time, and it was a genuine cross-section of the real old native life. It was related as described nearly forty years ago by a learned chief of the Ngati-Pikiao tribe, and it is moreover embodied in the records of evidence in the Native Land Court.

The eating of a foe after he was dead, a practice revived in the wars of the Sixties, was a mere nothing beside the things the pakeha did and the things he does. As for sensitiveness on the score of the past, what Englishman troubles to squirm over the fact that his forefathers used to hang women and children for stealing a handkerchief or a loaf of bread; or used to burn old women accused of the evil eye, or used to quarter the bodies of their enemies over the town gates? Remember, too, Ambrose Bierce's version of his own national anthem: “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”:

“Land where my fathers fried
Young witches, and applied
Whips to the Quaker's hide
And made him spring.”

Every race and nation has a barbarous past. The chief point of difference between the Maori and the races of the outer world is that while he has advanced, those races are so ultra-civilised that some of them have relapsed into a kind of highly scientific and therefore more horrible barbarism. Enough of that!

Polynesian Immigrant Names.

Many a Maori place-name is of great antiquity; its origin goes back to the isles of Polynesia, so far back that often its original significance is lost. For example, it is not much use attempting to give the literal significance of such names as Piako and Maketu. They were given by the chiefs of the canoes Tainui and Arawa on their arrival on these shores from the Eastern Pacific. Hikurangi is another, but in this case the meaning is obvious; it signifies skyline, a prominent height on which the light lingers. There are many Hikurangis in New Zealand. The origin of the name may be traced back to Rarotonga. The highest peak on that island is so called, or in the local pronunciation, Ikuraki.

It is rather curious to find numerous Maori names exactly duplicated in faraway Easter Island. One is Marotiri, which is the name of the Chicken Islands, on the North Auckland coast. The Maori name of the Shag Rock, that black volcanic plug in the Heathcote estuary, on Christchurch's ocean front, is Rapanui, which is also one of the ancient names of Easter Island. Numerous other names of that isle of magic and mystery could be quoted in proof of the wide distribution of the Maori tongue and nomenclature. And in the remote Tuamotu Islands, the Low Archipelago, there are many names which are exactly identical with those places on our coast.