Nga mahi a ringa

Tu Tangata, Issue 22, 1 February 1985, Page 24

Nga mahi a ringa

na Jenny Lee

When pakehas brought a knowledge of writing to Aotearoa, maori people quickly took over this new skill and made it their own. Men travelled long distances to mission schools to acquire this knowledge, then returning home, taught it to people in their own areas. By the early 1840’s many thousands of maoris could read and write, and letterwriting was popular.

While most letters were exchanged between Maori, some were written to pakeha. George Grey, governor of the

country between 1845 and 1853, received many letters and luckily kept them; they are now preserved in the

Grey Collection in the Auckland Public Library. Among this collection there are also a number of letters sent to his wife, Lady Eliza Grey. Most of these are from Maori women whom she knew.

Two of these letters came from Ruta Te Rauparaha, who was married to Tamihana Te Rauparaha, and Pipi Te Whiwhi, the wife of Matene Te Whiwhi. These two men were closely related, and both were leading chiefs of Ngati Toa, in the Otaki district north of Wellington. Tamihana was the son of the great Te Rauparaha, and Matene was the son of Topeora, sister of Te Rangihaeata.

Both men became Christians in the 1830’s, partly because they regarded Christianity as a force for peace. In 1839 they travelled to Paihia in the Bay of Islands to ask that a missionary be sent to their part of the country. Later, in 1846, they went with their wives to study at St John’s College, a theological school which had recently been established in Auckland.

It was there that Ruta Te Rauparaha and Pipi Te Whiwhi became friendly with Eliza Grey. This relationship continued after they returned home, for the Governor and Lady Grey visited Tamihana, Matene and their wives at Otaki on at least one occasion.

In 1853, when the Greys were about to leave the country, letters of farewell were sent to them from all over the country. In maori life, farewells were important, generally being marked by whaikorero and waiata. Early maori letter-writers made use of many of the techniques of oral speech, including those of direct address, repetition, metaphor, and particularly the quoting of the words of songs. Just as in whaikorero a speaker would sing a song at a certain point, so a letter-writer would include the words of a song where it would be appropriate if it were being spoken. These sung interludes were relevant to the theme of the whaikorero, often poetically summing up the ideas under discussion. Many of the songs harked back wholly or in part to earlier occasions which by implication added another dimension to the present one, or clarified what might be an obscure point. This was done to evoke a response, by paralleling the past and the present. A clever, subtle or particularly apt choice of song delighted listeners, its appropriateness thus sanctioning its use.