73 research outputs found
Ko Tautoro te Pito o Tōku Ao: A Ngāpuhi Narrative
No full textThis book is a revelation. Iwi history, traditions and philosophy told in the parlance of the people, utilising te reo Māori and Māori literary forms including karakia, waiata, whakapapa and kōrero paki. Ko Tautoro te Pito o Tōku Ao: A Ngāpuhi Narrative presents a richly detailed and intricately woven narrative which draws the reader in to the places and people who are Ngāpuhi nui tonu. Author Hōne Sadler takes the reader on a journey into the intellectual history of Ngāpuhi which, though based on evidence the author presented to the Waitangi Tribunal in support of the WAI 1040 Te Paparahi o Te Raki claim, in book format reads more as a tribal manifesto. Indeed, Sadler’s work aligns with Muskogee Creek and Cherokee literary scholar Craig Womack’s assertion that, ‘To exist as a nation, the community needs a perception of nationhood, that is, stories…that help them imagine who they are as a people, how they came to be, and what cultural values they wish to preserve.’[i] Accordingly, this book plants a stake firmly, deliberately and articulately in the ground by drawing together multiple narrative strands in a complex introductory account poised at this moment in Ngāpuhi history.[i] Craig Womack, Red on Red: Native American Literary Nationalism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999, p. 26. </jats:p
Korero Pukapuka, Talking Books: Reading in Reo Māori in the Long Nineteenth Century
No full textThe introduction of reading to New Zealand by missionaries in 1815 was a catalyst for enormous change in how Māori communicated and recorded information. Reading was quickly adopted by Māori, who learned in mission schools initially, and increasingly taught each other, both in formal educational contexts and informally in village settings across the country. Missionaries were concerned to promote reading as a means of communicating the Christian gospel, and much of the early material available to Māori readers in reo Māori was ecclesiastical or scriptural works. However, in 1842 the colonial government established the first reo Māori newspaper, the first of around forty titles which were produced over the period 1842-1932 by government, church and philanthropist, and Māori groups. Alongside news, speeches and other items, the niupepa included a wide range of texts that broadened the genres available in reo significantly. Many reports exist of Māori reading and writing in to the niupepa. Māori reading was, however, often carried out in conjunction with traditions of Māori debate and oral communication, which proved to be pragmatic approaches to the reading context of Māori in nineteenth century New Zealand.
Government-controlled niupepa in particular used translated texts, both in niupepa and bound separately, as a means of disseminating information on a ‘civilised’ life and urging Māori to take up European behaviours. Other niupepa, however, in particular the Anglican-Māori Te Pipiwharauroa, He Kupu Whakamarama and Te Toa Takitini and the Kotahitanga niupepa Te Puke ki Hikurangi, promoted reading as a means by which Māori could inform themselves, entertain themselves, and connect with other cultures. Rather than being subsumed by Pākehā culture, these niupepa writers aimed to enrich their lives as Māori by incorporating elements of what they read in the paper. Translated texts, reo Māori versions of originals from other languages, were certainly part of this change, with readers reporting their reflections on the text and its application in their lives. Although responses were varied to reading, with many Māori both reading and lacking interest in reading at the end of the long nineteenth century, a well-developed reading culture in te reo existed in New Zealand, Although reading was not engaged in by the whole population, it was, in many cases, highly respected and a part of daily and official life
The Colonial Reinvention of the Hei Tiki: Pounamu, Knowledge and Empire, 1860s-1940s
No full textThis thesis examines the reinvention of pounamu hei tiki between the 1860s and 1940s. It asks how colonial culture was shaped by engagement with pounamu and its analogous forms greenstone, nephrite, bowenite and jade.
The study begins with the exploitation of Ngāi Tahu’s pounamu resource during the West Coast gold rush and concludes with post-World War II measures to prohibit greenstone exports. It establishes that industrially mass-produced pounamu hei tiki were available in New Zealand by 1901 and in Britain by 1903. It sheds new light on the little-known German influence on the commercial greenstone industry. The research demonstrates how Māori leaders maintained a degree of authority in the new Pākehā-dominated industry through patron-client relationships where they exercised creative control.
The history also tells a deeper story of the making of colonial culture. The transformation of the greenstone industry created a cultural legacy greater than just the tangible objects of trade. Intangible meanings are also part of the heritage. The acts of making, selling, wearing, admiring, gifting, describing and imagining pieces of greenstone pounamu were expressions of culture in practice. Everyday objects can tell some of these stories and provide accounts of relationships and ways of knowing the world.
The pounamu hei tiki speaks to this history because more than merely stone, it is a cultural object and idea. In this study, it stands for the dynamic processes of change, the colonial realities of Māori resistance and participation and Pākehā experiences of dislocation and attachment.
The research sits at an intersection of new imperial histories and studies of material culture. The power of pounamu to carry multiple meanings and to be continually reinterpreted represents the circulation of colonial knowledge, and is a central contention of the thesis
Indigenous Mobilities: Across the Antipodes and Beyond
No full textFittingly published on the eve of Tuia 250, Indigenous Mobilities urges us to think harder and with much more depth about the precise nature of colonial contact with Indigenous peoples and settlement on Indigenous land in the antipodes. Given our geographic proximity, the 200 or so year history of Māori in Australia and our entwined if equally divergent political history, it is surprising that scholarship taking in both the Australian and New Zealand contexts does not appear more frequently. Indeed, it is notable how often Aboriginal Australia is not brought into conversation with New Zealand Māori histories, experiences and aspirations. A welcome addition to scholarship which actively seeks Indigenous–Indigenous connection and recognition of our shared region, Indigenous Mobilities asks what happens when we read Māori and Aboriginal mobility alongside each other. The picture that emerges is a richly hued canvas of lives fully lived and places fully inhabited against a backdrop of colonial oppression
Tau mai e Kapiti te whare wananga o ia, o te nui, o te wehi, o te toa: Reclaiming early Raukawa-Toarangatira writing from Otaki
No full textMaori writing in the nineteenth-century was prolific. Maori writers worked in multiple genres including, but not limited to biography, correspondence, historical narrative, political response, memoir and song composition. Much of this immense body of work is currently housed in libraries and other archival institutions around Aotearoa New Zealand. An indeterminate amount is held in private ownership. Of the small number of these manuscripts which have been published, many have gone on to become key texts for studying Maori language, customs, practices, beliefs, and history. Responding to the calls of Australian and American Indian literary studies for researchers to engage both critically and creatively with Indigenous literatures, this thesis will focus on specific nineteenth-century Maori literary works in order to explore the nature and stakes of early Maori writing. The impact of European contact which informed many nineteenth-century Indigenous experiences will be interrogated as will the substantial manuscript and archival records that assist us, the descendants of these writers, in reclaiming our written heritage.
Specifically, this thesis will explore a small selection of the written legacies of Tamihana Te Rauparaha, Matene Te Whiwhi and Rakapa Kahoki. These tupuna wrote letters, petitions and historical texts, acted as scribes and composed waiata. As well as sharing close Ngati Raukawa and Ngati Toarangatira whakapapa and moving in similar social and political circles, these tupuna were based in Otaki where they were actively involved in issues of local, tribal and national significance. Focusing this thesis on the specific place of Otaki provides an opportunity to reflect on the nature and significance of Maori writing more broadly and also anchors this thesis in ancestral space. An academic revisioning of these ancestors‘ written work is long overdue and is especially timely while Indigenous peoples continue to be engaged in projects of intellectual recovery and reclamation.
This thesis presents readings of several manuscripts that were produced by Tamihana Te Rauparaha and Matene Te Whiwhi as well as two waiata texts composed by Rakapa Kahoki relatively early on in our encounters with tauiwi and the written word. Where many historically based studies have made use of these manuscripts as source documents, this research instead offers a literary exploration of the manuscripts which sees the manuscripts themselves as the main point of reference. This thesis essentially draws attention to the ‗written-ness‘ of the texts. It is a literary study which highlights the literary skills that our ancestors employed in their written work and which have tended to be overlooked in the scholarship. This study is also influenced by developments in a number of academic fields including but not limited to history, linguistics, Pacific studies, comparative studies and post-colonial studies. It is moreover, a Maori studies thesis which centres a Maori world view and the concerns of Maori people and communities.
Ultimately, it is anticipated that this thesis will forge new pathways into the study of Maori literatures, and that these pathways will clear some much needed intellectual space in which a deeper analysis of the writing of tupuna Maori can be articulated. Furthermore, beyond its focus on the literature of Ngati Raukawa and Ngati Toarangatira, this thesis extends the scholarship on Maori writing and literatures, Maori historical studies and Maori intellectual history and in this way speaks to a contemporary Indigenous intellectual agenda
Haere Mai Me Tuhituhi He Pukapuka: Muri Iho Ka Whawhai Ai Tatou: Reading Te Rangikaheke
No full textThis thesis reads Te Rangikaheke's texts through the editorial,
Te Arawa and biographic dimensions of the writer and the texts.
Te Rangikaheke was a prolific nineteenth century writer who produced over
800 pages of manuscript material. 1 Although he has enjoyed a moderate
amount of scholarly attention, this has tended to focus on attribution,
cataloguing and tracing publication, transcription and translating, commentary
on authenticity and literary quality and his account of history.
Specifically, the first core chapter explores issues concerning the
editing of Te Rangikaheke's manuscripts by Governor George Grey and the
effects of Grey's editing decisions on the texts. This chapter explores the
nature of the relationship between Grey and Te Rangikaheke, the effects of
this relationship on Te Rangikaheke's texts, and what the dualities of
Pakeha/Maori and Governor/Native might mean in terms of the texts.
Responding to the calls of American Indian Literary Criticism for studies of
Indigenous topics to engage deeply with the contexts of iwi and place, the
second core chapter looks at Te Rangikaheke as an Arawa writer and
explores issues around identity and articulating an Arawa literary history.
Finally, a biography of Te Rangikaheke elaborated from previously known and
new biographic details combined with a close reading of his name and three of
Te Rangikaheke's letters.
Ultimately, it is anticipated that this thesis will forge new pathways into
in the study of Wiremu Maihi Te Rangikaheke and his writing, and that these
new pathways will clear some much needed space in which a deeper analysis
of Te Rangikaheke's writing can be articulated. Furthermore, beyond its focus
on a single writer, this thesis extends the scholarship on nineteenth century
Maori writing, Maori historical studies, and Maori intellectual history and in this
way speaks to a contemporary Indigenous intellectual agenda
- …
