The natural world of the maori

Tu Tangata, Issue 17, 1 April 1984, Page 16

The natural world of the maori

While TVNZ are to be congratulated on the commissioning of this new series tracing the ancestry of the Maori people, it’s a pity part of the mammoth effort wasn’t put into Te Karere.

With a large budget for what’s the equivalent of a maori ‘Roots’, TVNZ seems content to popularise the native image of the maori people rather than examine where they are at today. That’s Te Karere’s great strength. What are the concerns of the maori people today and what effect does this have on the pakeha majority.

Obviously Te Karere is not primetime viewing for the majority of TVNZ viewers who may prefer something a little more comfortable, perhaps a maori follow-up to the Ascent of Man. At least that’s how the ‘Natural world of the maori’ is spoken of in the press release.

The pity about such programmes, is that while much education is being aimed these days to inform about new developments in maoridom, old stereotypes and prejudices die hard. The romantic ‘traditional’ view of the maori as a native race is one such stereotype that is reinforced by such an historical look at the Maori.

TVNZ says every effort will be made to present the series with the mana it deserves, and indeed the Maori consultancy involved will ensure things are handled properly.

The series is aimed to screen next year. It would be fitting if TVNZ were to increase Te Karere’s staff of two journalists in the meantime so that viewers don’t think that all the maoris left in New Zealand are trapped in history books. (Ed)

A New Maori Series

Since Television New Zealand developed and broadcast the maori programme “Koha” in 1980, there has been a steady rise in the number, type and quality of maori programmes on television. Koha and the daily programme, “Titiro Mai”, explored modern maori culture, contemporary issues and living maori people. The news programme, ‘‘Te Karere”, highlights the events of the day.

Television New Zealand now begins production of a major documentary series that looks at the origins and the roots of maori.

The Natural World of the maori will explore the world of Polynesia and New Zealand before the arrival of the pakeha in 1769. The series will trace the evolution and development of modern maori culture and will highlight the extraordinary achievements of the people that came thousands of miles over the open ocean to possess this land and become possessed by it.

Programme 1 Tawhiti Pamamao

The first programme in the series will look at Polynesia before eastern Polynesian people found their way into the Southern Ocean and to Aotearoa. The programme will create a picture of what it was like to live in old Polynesia. It will highlight the things that Polynesians kept in one form or another in New Zealand. It will look at Polynesian languages, fishing, myths, maraes, Polynesian plants and animals, tapa cloths, and set the scene for the replacement of this material by harakeke (flax) in New Zealand. The series will look at some Polynesian religious ideas and set them for their development in maori New Zealand.

The first programme in the series will look at the world of Polynesian navigation. It will examine the voyaging skills and the astronomical knowledge of Polynesians and pose questions about people who may have been the world’s greatest sailors. We will look at canoes and consider some of the questions about how those canoes brought the first maoris to our shores.

Programme 2 Te Ao Kohatu

The first Polynesians to arrive in Aotearoa brought with them reminders of home. Their canoe carried at least half a dozen tropical plants, a few dogs and kiore, the rat, but the most important thing they brought from home was their own ingenuity, their traditions and their understanding of nature. The first New Zealanders quickly settled into their new home. They observed, named and began to use the birds, plants and fish they found here. They began to cope with striking changes of season and they began to explore the country

and its resources. Back home they had been fishermen and horticulturalists. In this country they became hunters and gatherers as well. They quickly discovered the muka fibre of flax and developed an extraordinary range of flax products. They looked for and found substitutes for pearl shell and Polynesian stones and discovered the hardest stone of all pounamu, the cultural hinge of South Island maori culture.

Programme 3 Te Kakahu O Nga Atua

It is impossible to understand anything about the minds of our tupuna without coming to terms with their myths and the way they used them. This programme will look at the way myths put the world in order, gave man a position and a role, and set up our kinship with the rest of nature. The programme will look at the great myth figures of Maori, Kupe, Toi and others Tupuna or Atua? We will look at their deeds and explore some of the meanings behind the actions. The programme will look at the complexity and variety of myth and local traditions, and ask questions about what was real and what was not. But in the end it may not really matter because a myth is taken on faith and its significance is not necessarily tied to whether or not a real man walked in the real world. Myths may be the only reality.

Programme 4 Te Whai Ao

The maori people that Captain Cook met when he sailed ‘Endeavour’ up the East Coast of the North Island were in fact a lot different from those people who arrived here in the canoes from Polynesia. Most of the traces of the old Polynesian culture were gone and Cook saw quite a different group of people and a new living culture. This programme looks at the development of those classical maori qualities that we recognise today. We will look at the way the maori spread throughout the land, the fortifications he built, the wars he fought, the way his fishing and horticultural techniques had changed, the development of the art of carving and one of the great achievements of those people the development of the techniques for storing fragile kumara tubers. Rua Kumara are a great deal more than pits in the ground. They are carefully constructed humidity-con-

trolled, moisture-protected structures that not only ensured the survival of the whanau over the winter, but provided the means for a great explosion and the growth of the tribes. Preserving and storage of food is one of the keys to understanding maori development. Our kaiwairua are generally those that can be preserved.

Programme 5 Te Ao Marama

This programme will examine growth of maori ideas. The programme will look at the spiritual base on which the physical culture rested. This programme will highlight those particular and long-lasting qualities of mind that make maori unique. We will examine with respect notions of tapu and noa, mana, ideas of leadership, rituals associated with important moments in life and something of the spiritual identity that we have with our land and our marae.

Programme 6 Te Mara O Tane

Tanemahuta is the principal atua of the land and his presence is most profoundly rooted in the forest. The trees, the plants, the ferns, all things that grow are a part of Tane. He is both source and guardian and man too is a part of Tane. All things are linked by whakapapa. This programme looks at the way maori related to and used forests. The programme will examine the enormous variety of food that maori found in the bush. It will look at ingenious methods of extracting nourishing footstuffs and the way he found a use for many unusual forest plants. The programme will highlight some unusual forest products like perfumes and scents and will look at the

way the maori largely conserved and regulated what he used. The programme will also look at the way the seasons affected the way the Maori saw particular forest resources at different times of the year.

Programme 7 Nga Reo O Tane

The world of birds provided the maori with not only an emormously varied food supply but a real source of symbol and imagery. The maori ate almost every bird that flew or walked but he also had a story or a proverb about them all as well. This programme will look at the many clever means that maori used to catch birds and store them.

Programme 8 Te Kete A Tangaroa

The Polynesians who came to New Zealand brought with them a great tradition of fishing and seamanship this heritage became an integral part of maori culture. This episode looks at the way the maori related and used the ocean resources of Tangaroa. The episode will examine the great variety of fishing tackle, lures and lines that were used to catch a great variety of surface dwelling and deep sea fish abounding in New Zealand waters. The fish were food, they were also a source

of symbol and myth. This, too, is a part of the realm of Tangaroa.

Rivers and inland waterways will also feature in this episode hinaki, fishing weirs, methods of preservation, fish calling and the ritual and karakia used in association with waters.

Programme 9 Mahoranui Atea

The previous episodes of The Natural World of the Maori have examined the way a culture develops, adjusts, flowers and grows. We have looked at the roots of Maori culture, its beginnings and its flowering.

Our culture is now finding a new expression in the 20th Century and beyond. This final episode of The Natural World of the Maori will examine those things from our past that are still foundations of what it is to be a maori and will look at the way the people think the culture might progress into the future. The episode will give maori people, young and old, urban and rural, grand or humble, the chance to speak about themselves in Maori or English and talk about aspects of their taha Maori. The episode will draw a comprehensive picture of the maori in New Zealand today, all sides of opinion will be canvassed. The episode will highlight the strengths of modern maori and the beauty of many important maori attitudes, but will also mention social failures and will give people a chance to offer some thoughts about where we go from here.

Kaumatua

John Rangihau of Tuhoe is the Cultural Consultant and Advisor to the series. As one of the maori world’s most noted kaumatua and cultural authorities, his participation, brings both mana and guidance to the project. He will lead a panel of kaumatua and tribal experts who will advise the programme makers.

The Production Team

In keeping with the importance of the series, Television New Zealand has gathered together an exceptional production team to work on the project.

The Producer

The Natural World of the Maori will be produced by Ray Waru (Te Aupouri). He comes to the series with a background in the Feltex Award winning series Country Calendar, and he has previously produced the maori programme, Koha.

The Frontman

The Presenter of The Natural World of the Maori will be Tipene O’Regan (Ngai Tahu), recently retired Senior Lecturer in Maori Studies at Wellington Teachers College, Chairman of the Ngai Tahu Maori Trust Board a major tribal authority, Chairman of the Mawhera Corporation, and Maori Advisory Officer to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Tipene has also been a Ngai Tahu Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury, working on tribal history. Tipene’s background, starting out as a seaman working coastal vessels in the Cook Strait area and ending with preparations for a PhD, fit him ably to carry the message of the series to the television audience. He has always had a lively practical interest in the way the maori used the bush and the sea.