Maori Girl

Tu Tangata, Issue 22, 1 February 1985, Page 10

Maori Girl

When the god Tane created the first woman, he breathed life and power into an ancestor of intelligence and independence; characteristics classic Maori society much admired in women who, from birth, were raised with great care and affection.

From an early age, girls learned through play and observation. Almost from infancy they accompanied parents to cultivations, fishing grounds and forests where they experienced the seasonal arts and rituals of community work and survival. As they grew older, they became more closely involved in such domestic activities as food preparation, collecting firewood and watching over younger children.

However, if there was responsibility in a classic Maori childhood, there was also free time and the pursuit of healthy pastimes; among the more popular being swimming, canoe racing and various competitive games that encouraged in girls mental and manual dexterity. Then there was the whare tapere or house of amusement. Here there were varying forms of entertainment which included dance-surging with vibrant expression and emotion, and accompanied by song and chant

celebrating life and experience; its joys and promise.

Classic Maori society was a highly creative society in which girls were taught early a range of imaginative arts and crafts; the most important, weaving. Under the instruction of tohunga or experts, girls learned the preparation of materials and the techniques of weaving as well as its decorative traditions. Not only were practical everyday cloaks produced but also ceremonial cloaks or kakahu; some decorated with kiwi or with brilliant kaka feathers, others with dog skins. Also taught, was the art of whariki patterned and prized mats which had similar decorative designs as tukutuku or the reed wall panelling that was also worked by girls and were set up between carved ancestral posts in assembly houses.

All arts and crafts were tapu; a form of sacred prohibition against interference which, in all its complexity, was strictly adhered to by girls; particularly those under instruction by tohunga, who were also responsible for teaching them sacred ceremonial relating to the lifting of tapu on newly built meeting houses, war canoes and fortified villages or paa. Considered noa or

naturally destructive of tapu, girls (on such occasions) were usually of high tribal rank; possessing the mana or prestige of important ancestral linage. Such girls were often set aside in childhood for later marriage to rangatira or chiefs.

Religion was closely woven into the farbic of classic Maori society. Consequently, such diverse occasions as the ressurection of bones of tribal dead or the return of a victorious war party was marked by considerable ceremony. Under the direction of priests, religious functions were often a time for elaborate ritual with young girls performing poi, haka and chanting waiata. Colourfully dressed and with faces painted with imaginative designs, they were both persuasively expert and confident; the pride of marae and tribe. Among ritualised ceremony, was that revolving round ta moko or tattooing which girls underwent at the age of 12 to 14. Confined to lips and chin, the tattoo was an experience gladly undertaken but requiring courage, as technique involved incising with bone whao or chisels. Completion of ta moko was celebrated by a feast and presentation of gifts.

The relationship between girls and parents was close and balanced: fathers provided security and affection, while mothers both loved and educated daughters. Easily trained and possessed of a natural good sense and modesty, girls were given a great deal of freedom which resulted in, later, women of strong character; it was not uncommon for them to take part in tribal or community defence or join war expeditions.... If of rangatira status, some exercised considerable influence among their people, Among the greatest poets of the classic period, women were also the focus of much tribal legend and romance: who has not heard of Puhihuia, Hinemoa?

The classic Maori world was extraordinary in that the average family consisted of parents and at most three children whose life expectancy rarely exceeded twenty years, which may perhaps have contributed to the exceptional closeness of parents and children, and parents absorption in raising the young successfully as healthy, vigorous and intelligent members of an extremely youthful but dynamic culture and society.

For girls, the experience of growing up was relatively free of emotional, inhibiting trauma. There were crises for them, of course, but they were not without family and community support. Their relationship with brothers and sisters was close and enduring; conflict was rare, and easily resolved. All relatives were family and a refuge; particularly during adolescence with its cycles of stress and occasions of emotional drama! The ‘older generation’ were confidantes, and normally adoptive parents in the real sense, as many children were orphaned early; indeed, a third of children born probably did not know natural parents beyond infancy.

Freedom of relationships with boys was condoned, except where girls had been spoken for in intancy or were of high rangatira status. During adolescence, life for girls was one of intrigue and competition for the attention of the opposite sex the competitiveness of possession being played out, mainly, in the whare tapere where, during evenings (and often through the night] girls displayed their skills in traditional dance and entrapment! Married early and happily, they were loyal wives, responsible mothers.

With European settlement in mid-19th century, Maori land loss through conflict and sale led to marked Maori demoralisation and radical change in the raising of children, with consequences that continue to create problems today. The traditions of classic Maori child rearing have contemporary relevance. Culture is, above all, the young and survival through them.