He Waiatamo Te Whiti

Tu Tangata, Issue 12, 1 June 1983, Page 8

He Waiatamo Te Whiti

In the 1860 s most of the territory of the Taranaki tribes was seized by the land-hungry colonial Government after a war which it had itself provoked. Following this disaster, the chief and prophet Te Whiti o Rongomai established at Parihaka a community where for 40 years he led his followers in a programme of passive resistance. His teachings were celebrated and promulgated in impressive performances of waiata, haka and poi, and some descriptions of these have been preserved; James Cowan, for example, wrote that it was an exciting experience to watch the vigour of the women’s poi dances, ‘but it was the high ceremonious chanting that was the most thrilling part of it. The songs were ritual, historical, sacred’.

While some of these songs have been published, others have not, and some may now be forgotten. One song which appears not to have been published is recorded in an old manuscript book owned by Mr Riki Ellison of Taumutu, near Christchurch. I am grateful to Mr Ellison for permitting me to publish it. Taumutu is a small seaside settlement which lies on the southern shore of Lake Ellesmere, or Waihora, whose wide waters used to provide the Maori people of that region with enormous quantities of eels, flounder and lampreys, as well as ducks and other wild fowl. Many of Mr Ellison’s ancestors lived in Otago, or Otakou, where his great-great-grandfather Te Matenga Taiaroa (c. 1783-1863) was a leading chief; but his great-grandfather, Hone Kerei Taiaroa, moved north to Taumutu in the late 1870 s, a few years after he became a Member of Parliament. This manuscript book is among the papers that Mr Ellison inherited from his great-

grandfather. The book belonged originally to Arehi T. Karetai of Waiari Kainga, Otakou, for this name and address appear on the front cover. On one of its pages the writer has recorded the date as 19th August 1894. It contains mostly genealogies of the Karetai family, a well-known Otakou family closely related to the Taiaroas, but on the last pages there are several songs. The first two of these are waiata composed by Te Whiti’s followers. As 'well as the song published here, there is a wellknown one that begins Tangi a taku ihu e whakamak uru ana, ‘My sneeze is an omen’. The Southern Connection Te Whiti and his fellow leader Tohu were held without trial from November 1881 until March 1883, and most of this

period was spent in the South Island. Their Pakeha gaolers, in the vain hope that they could tempt them from their purpose, allowed them considerable liberty, and as a consequence Te Whiti was allowed some contact with the Maori people of Te Wai Pounamu. They treated him as an honoured guest, and while in Otakou he sat for his portrait, the only time he ever consented to do this. (A portrait based on this photograph still hangs at Otakou Marae, and a copy is now in the Parihaka meeting-house also. This period is discussed, and the portrait illustrated, by George Griffiths and Maarire Goodall in their recent book, Dunedin Maori). The South Island Maori had also suffered greatly from unjust and illegal land transactions, and Te Whiti’s teachings gave many of them new hope and a new focus for their aspirations. Dick Scott, in his eloquent book Ask That Mountain, tells us (page 149) that

when Te Whiti and Tohu had returned to Parihaka, and the Taranaki people were engaged in marches protesting the theft of their land, ‘contributions of cash and food poured in from all parts of Aotearoa. In one shipment Nelson sent cartloads of mussels, 25 cases of apples and five cases of jam, Otago provided muttonbirds and oysters each region gave its best to the fighting province’. So it is not surprising that in 1894 a man of Otakou should have carefully recorded this song. An assertion that life will continue Like many waiata, the song begins with a lament and ends with an affirmation, an assertion that life will continue and the people survive. In the second line, the clouds come as messengers: possibly from those who have died, certainly also from the people who have suffered persecution. Te Atiawa are Te Whiti’s tribe. In the second stanza the poet speaks

of the hospitality extended to all in Te Whiti’s large dining hall at Parihaka, which is named Te Niho-o-Te-Atiawa literally, ‘Te Atiawa’s Teeth’. Nohomairangi is Te Whiti’s son. Mitimai was a European-style meeting house built for Te Whiti by men who had returned to Parihaka after being imprisoned without trial; its full name, Miti-Mai-Te-Arero, means literally ‘The Tongue Licks Out Towards Me’, and must refer to Pakeha aggression. The poet ends, triumphantly, by addressing Te Whiti and asking him to affirm the resolution and the mana of his people by placing in their hair the raukura, the white feather that is his emblem. Margaret Orbell

A new history that documents the changes in Maori life from the 1850 s to the 1980 s is being launched in the Maori Affairs Committee Room in Parliament Buildings in July. It is Maori: A Social and Photographic History, by historian Michael King.

According to Dr King, Maori differs from previous histories in that it makes widespread use of photographs from Maori sources (about 400). And these photographs are not used simply for impression or decoration; they are presented as historical documents, as evidence of how people looked in particular times and places, and how their lives were changed by the steady intrusion of Western technology into their lives.

The combination of text, photographs and captions make this the most comprehensive Maori history published to date, according to Dr King, current Writer in Residence at Victoria University. “The text provides an overview, a context for the changes that have taken place in Maori life since the arrival of the European. The photographs and captions are full of specific information about places, events, hapu, families and individuals. The index contains more reference material on Maori life than is available from any other source.”

It is not the changes in Maori life that have most impressed Dr King, however. “This collection of photographs reveals two things that Pakehas might find unexpected. One is the enormous variety of Maori life: what was happening in, say, the King Country in 1885 was quite different from what was going on in Maori communities in the South Island at the same time. The relative speeds with which European customs and technology were absorbed into Maori life were enormously varied.

“The second suprising thing is the extent to which Maori values and practices persisted beneath a veneer of Pakeha clothing and progressively Pakeha-looking dwellings. Appearances led many earlier European commentators to make the mistake of predicting an eventual end to Maori culture. They could not have been more wrong.” The book is divided into sections which look at Maori dwellings, domestic life, huis, tangis, agriculture, transport, leadership, farming, fighting and sport, and points of contact between Maori and Pakeha.

“I have compiled it, largely from Maori sources, in the hope that Maoris will have a better record of the variety and vitality of their own past,” said Dr King. “And in the hope that non-Maoris will have a better basis for appreciating the nature of Maori experience from a background of how things have come to be the way they are. The next result should be not just greater respect fur things Maori, but a far more informed respect.”

New History of the Maori

Maori: A Photographic and Social History is produced by Heinemann Publishers.