Māori

The Māori settlement of New Zealand represents an end-point of a long chain of island-hopping voyages

The Māori (commonly pronounced /ˈmɑːɔri/ or /ˈmaʊri/) are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand (Aotearoa). The group probably arrived in southwestern Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300. The Māori settled the islands and developed a distinct culture.

In the Māori language the word māori means “normal”, “natural” or “ordinary”. In legends and other oral traditions, the word distinguished ordinary mortal human beings from deities and spirits (wairua).

Māori people often use the term tangata whenua (literally, “people of the land”) to describe themselves in a way that emphasises their relationship with a particular area of land — a tribe may be the tangata whenua in one area, but not in another. The term can also refer to Māori as a whole in relation to New Zealand (Aotearoa) as a whole.

Around 1500 AD a group of Māori migrated east to Rekohu (the Chatham Islands), where, by adapting to the local climate and the availability of resources, they developed a culture known as Moriori — related to but distinct from Māori culture in mainland Aotearoa. A notable feature of the Moriori culture, an emphasis on pacifism, proved disadvantageous when Māori warriors arrived in the 1830s aboard a chartered European ship.

Cultural Excerpt

This excerpt sheds some light on Māori culture and beliefs:

Myth and legend are an integral part of the corpus of fundamental knowledge held by the philosophers and seers of the Māori and indeed of the Polynesian peoples of the Pacific from ancient times. Indeed, there are remarkable parallels and similarities between the extant myths and legends held by the various Polynesian groups who have been separated from each other for time spans ranging from eight hundred to two thousand five hundred years.

For instance Māui as a myth hero, Tangaroa as the God of the sea, Tāne, Rangi and Papa and the stories that revolve around them have a common thread or theme running through them. The concepts which underlie the various legends also exhibit a common motif and focus. Modern man has summarily dismissed these so called myths and legends as the superstitious and quaint imaginings of primitive, pre-literate societies. That assumption could not be further from the truth.

Myth and legend in the Māori cultural context are neither fables embodying primitive faith in the supernatural, nor marvelous fireside stories of ancient times. They were deliberate constructs employed by the ancient seers and sages to encapsulate and condense into easily assimilable forms their view of the world, of ultimate reality and the relationship between the Creator, the universe and man.

Cultures pattern perceptions of reality into conceptualisations of what they perceive reality to be: of what is to be regarded as actual, probable, possible or impossible. These conceptualisations form what is termed the ‘world view’ of a culture.

The World view is the central systematisation of conceptions of reality to which members of is culture assent and from which stems their value system. The world view lies at the very heart of the culture, touching, interacting with and strongly influencing every aspect of the culture.

In terms of Māori culture, the myths and legends form the central system on which their holistic view of the universe is based.

Western culture whose major focus is on the natural universe assumes that it is comprised of indestructible atoms of solid matter and conforms to strict mechanical laws in an absolutely predictable manner go on to further assume, that it can be understood and scientifically describable. It therefore applies scientific methodology to understand and describe cause and effect etc.

Other cultures start from other assumptions concerning the universe and arrive at different conclusions. Their logic may be just as good or as bad as Western cultures, and the way that they reason from assumption or hypotheses to conclusion may be very similar particularly in regard to the natural world but their basic assumptions may be very different. Other cultural assumptions may be just as valid, but focused on a part of the data that western cultures may ignore. For instance, westerners may focus on the ‘how’ or ‘immediate why’ of events but seldom concern them with the ‘ultimate why’ of such occurrences.

The ‘legend’ of Tāne ascending to the highest heaven in a bid to obtain the ‘Baskets of Knowledge’ from Io the creator demonstrate the principles outlined above.

The legend relates how Tāne after he had successfully organised the revolt that led to the separation of their parents Rangi (Father Heaven) and Papa (Mother Earth) having concluded the various purification rites wended his way through the heavens until he arrived at the penultimate heaven.

He was again sanctified by Rehua the Priest God of exorcism and purification who then allowed Tāne entrance into the twelfth heaven the abode of Io. There he received the three Baskets of Knowledge together with two small stones, one white and the other a predominantly red coloured stone. The former white stone was named Hukatai (Seafoam) and the latter red stone called Rehutai (Seaspray).

He descended to the seventh heaven where his brothers had completed the Whare Wananga (House of Learning or Wisdom). After the welcome, he had to undergo more purification rites to remove the intense ‘tapu’ ingested from his association with the intense sacredness of Io.

Having completed the purification rites, Tāne entered the Whare Wananga named Wharekura and deposited the three Baskets of Knowledge named Tuauri, Aronui, and Tua-Atea above the ‘taumata’ – the seat of authority where the seers and sages sat and then deposited the stones Hukatai and Rehutai, one on either side of the rear ridge pole.

On the surface, such a story may be regarded as a fairytale, a fantasy, to tell to children by the fireside in the evening.

Nothing could be further from the truth for this legend is part of the corpus of sacred knowledge and as such was not normally related in public. Furthermore, the way in which it was couched ensured that even when related in public, its inner meaning could not be understood without the key to unravel it. And unless all the parts were known and understood it was impossible to make sense of it.

It was basic tenet of Māoridom that the inner corpus of sacred knowledge was not to be shared with the ‘Tutuaa’ – the common herd, lest such knowledge be abused and misused. Such sacred lore was not lightly taught and was shared only with selected candidates who after a long apprenticeship and testing were deemed fit to hold such knowledge. Such an incident occurred in my experience when the seriousness of imparting such knowledge to ‘tutuaa’ was brought home to me.

After the war, when I returned to the Wananga I was questioned by the elders of the Wananga about my war experiences. In the course of my sharing our experiences I mentioned the atom bomb. One of the elders who had of course heard of the atom bomb asked me to explain the difference between an atom bomb and an explosive bomb. I took the lord ‘hihiri’ which in Māoridom means ‘pure energy’.

Here I recalled Einsteins concept of the real world behind the natural world as being comprised of ‘rhythmical patterns of pure energy’, and said to him that this was essentially the same concept.

He then exclaimed, “Do you mean to tell me that the Pakeha scientists (tohunga Pakeha) have managed to rend the fabric (Kahu) of the universe?”.
“Yes.”
“But do they know how to sew (tuitui) it back together again?”
“No!”
“That’s the trouble with sharing such ‘tapu’ knowledge, Tutuaa will always abuse it.”