Six major Māori departmental gods
represented by wooden godsticks: left to
right, Tūmatauenga, Tāwhirimātea, Tāne,
Tangaroa, Rongo, and Haumia
Maori Mythology
Six major Māori departmental gods represented by wooden godsticks: left to
right, Tūmatauenga, Tāwhirimātea, Tāne, Tangaroa, Rongo, and HaumiaMāori
mythology and Māori traditions are the two major categories into which the
legends of the Māori of New Zealand may usefully be divided. The rituals,
beliefs, and the world view of Māori society were ultimately based on an
elaborate mythology that had been inherited from a Polynesian homeland and
adapted and developed in the new setting (Biggs 1966:448).
Missionaries
Little of the extensive body of Māori mythology and tradition was recorded in
the early years of European contact. The missionaries had the best opportunity
to get the information, but failed to do so at first, in part because their
knowledge of the language was imperfect. Most of the missionaries who did master
the language were unsympathetic to Māori beliefs, regarding them as 'puerile
beliefs', or even 'works of the devil'. Exceptions to this general rule were J.
F. Wohlers of the South Island,[1] Richard Taylor, who worked in the Taranaki
and Wanganui River areas, and William Colenso who lived at the Bay of Islands
and also in Hawke's Bay. "The writings of these men are among our best sources
for the legends of the areas in which they worked" (Biggs 1966:447).
In the 1840s Edward Shortland, Sir George Grey, and other non-missionaries began
to collect the myths and traditions. At that time many Māori were literate in
their own language and the material collected was, in
general, written by Māori themselves in the same style as they spoke. The new
medium seems to have had minimal effect on the style and content of the stories.
Genealogies, songs, and narratives were written out in full, just as if they
were being recited or sung. Many of these early manuscripts have been published,
and today the scholar has access to a great body of material (more than for any
other area of the Pacific) containing multiple versions of the great myth cycles
known in the rest of Polynesia, as well as of the local traditions pertaining
only to New Zealand. A great deal of the best material is found in two books,
Nga Mahi a nga Tupuna (The Deeds of the Ancestors), collected by Sir George Grey
and translated as Polynesian Mythology; and Ancient History of the Māori (six
volumes), edited by John White (Biggs 1966:447).
Genealogical recital
The reciting of genealogies (whakapapa) was particularly well developed in Māori
oral literature, where it served several functions in the recounting of
tradition. Firstly it served to provide a kind of time scale which unified all
Māori myth, tradition, and history, from the distant past to the present. It
linked living people to the gods and the legendary heroes. By quoting
appropriate genealogical lines, a narrator emphasised his or her connection with
the characters whose deeds were being described, and that connection also proved
that the narrator had the right to speak of them. "In the cosmogonic
genealogies, to be described later, genealogical recital is revealed as a true
literary form. What appears at first sight to be a mere listing of names is in
fact a cryptic account of the evolution of the universe"' (Biggs 1966:447).
Poetry
Māori poetry was always sung or chanted; musical rhythms rather than linguistic
devices served to distinguish it from prose. Rhyme or assonance were not devices
used by the Māori; only when a given text is sung or chanted will the metre
become apparent. The lines are indicated by features of the music. The language
of poetry tends to differ stylistically from prose. Typical features of poetic
diction are the use of synonyms or contrastive opposites, and the repetition of
key words. "Archaic words are common, including many which have lost any
specific meaning and acquired a religious mystique. Abbreviated, sometimes
cryptic utterances and the use of certain grammatical constructions not found in
prose are also common" (Biggs 1966:447-448).
Prose narrative
Prose narrative forms the great bulk of Māori legendary material. Some appears
to have been sacred or esoteric, but many the legends were well-known stories
told as entertainment in the long nights of winter. "Nevertheless, they should
not be regarded simply as fairy tales to be enjoyed only as stories. The Māui
myth, for example, was important not only as entertainment but also because it
embodied the beliefs of the people concerning such things as the origin of fire,
of death, and of the land in which they lived. The ritual chants concerning
firemaking, fishing, death, and so on made reference to Māui and derived their
power from such reference" (Biggs 1966:448).
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Myths
Detail from a tāhūhū (ridgepole of a house), Ngāti Awa, Bay of Plenty, New
Zealand, circa 1840. Believed to represent one of two ancestors: Tūwharetoa or
Kahungunu.Myths are set in the remote past and their content often has to do
with the supernatural. They present Māori ideas about the creation of the
universe and the origins of gods and of people. The mythology accounts for
natural phenomena, the weather, the stars and the moon, the fish of the sea, the
birds of the forest, and the forests themselves. Much of the culturally
institutioned behaviour of the people finds its sanctions in myth. "Perhaps the
most distinctive feature of myth, as distinct from tradition, is its
universality. Each of the major myths is known in some version not only
throughout New Zealand but also over much of Polynesia as well" (Biggs
1966:448).
The Māori understanding of the development of the universe was expressed in
genealogical form. These genealogies appear in many versions, in which several
symbolic themes constantly recur. "Evolution may be likened to a series of
periods of darkness (pō) or voids (kore), each numbered in sequence or qualified
by some descriptive term. In some cases the periods of darkness are succeeded by
periods of light (ao). In other versions the evolution of the universe is
likened to a tree, with its base, tap roots, branching roots, and root hairs.
Another theme likens evolution to the development of a child in the womb, as in
the sequence “the seeking, the searching, the conception, the growth, the
feeling, the thought, the mind, the desire, the knowledge, the form, the
quickening”. Some, or all, of these themes may appear in the same genealogy"
(Biggs 1966:448). The cosmogonic genealogies are usually brought to a close by
the two names Rangi and Papa (father sky and mother earth). The marriage of this
celestial pair produced the gods and, in due course, all the living things of
the earth (Biggs 1966:448).
The earliest full account of the origins of gods and the first human beings is
contained in a manuscript entitled Nga Tama a Rangi (The Sons of Heaven),
written in 1849 by Wī Maihi Te Rangikāheke, of the Ngāti Rangiwewehi tribe of
Rotorua. The manuscript "gives a clear and systematic account of Māori religious
beliefs and beliefs about the origin of many natural phenomena, the creation of
woman, the origin of death, and the fishing up of lands. No other version of
this myth is presented in such a connected and systematic way, but all early
accounts, from whatever area or tribe, confirm the general validity of the
Rangikāheke version. It begins as follows: 'My friends, listen to me. The Māori
people stem from only one source, namely the Great-heaven-which-stands-above,
and the Earth-which-lies-below. According to Europeans, God made heaven and
earth and all things. According to the Māori, Heaven (Rangi) and Earth (Papa)
are themselves the source' " (Biggs 1966:448).
Traditions
"Every Māori social group had its own body of traditional belief which validated
its claims to the territory it occupied, gave authority to those of high rank,
and justified the group's external relationships with other groups. These
purposes were served because the members of the groups concerned believed that
the traditions were true records of past events, and they acted accordingly.
Alliances between groups were facilitated if it was believed that they shared a
common heritage, and the commoner's respect for and fear of his chief were
based, in part at least, on his belief in the semi-divine ancestry of those of
high rank" (Biggs 1966:450).
"Traditions, as opposed to myths, tell of incidents which are for the most part
humanly possible. Genealogical links with the present place them within the past
millennium. They are geographically located in New Zealand and knowledge of them
is confined to this country" (Biggs 1966:448).
The corpus of Māori tradition
According to Biggs , tradition may be divided into three types:
1. Discovery or origin traditions
Kupe. There were two major discovery or origin traditions. One of these
traditions names Kupe as the discoverer of New Zealand. The second group of
traditions regards Toi as the first important origin ancestor. "Both traditions
were current over wide but apparently complementary areas of the North Island.
Attempts to place the two in a single chronological sequence are misguided,
since there is no reliable evidence that they ever formed part of the same body
of traditional lore" (Biggs 1966:451). According to the tribes of North Auckland
and the west coast of the North Island, Kupe sailed to New Zealand from Hawaiki,
after murdering a man called Hoturapa, and making off with his wife,
Kuramarotini. Traditional songs recount Kupe's travels along the coast of New
Zealand. Kupe sailed back to Hawaiki and never came back to the land he
discovered. However, others came to New Zealand according to his directions
(Biggs 1966:451).
Toi (Toi-kai-rākau, or Toi-the-wood-eater) is the traditonal origin ancestor of
the tribes of the East Coast of the North Island. Their traditions make no
mention of his coming to New Zealand, and the inference is that he was born
there. The Tūhoe tribe of the inland Bay of Plenty, say that Toi's 'ancestor'
Tiwakawaka was the first to settle the country, "but only his name is
remembered" (Biggs 1966:451). Tiwakawaka is actually the name of a bird, the
fantail.
2. Migration and settlement traditions
Māori migration canoes Migration traditions are numerous, and pertain to small
areas and to small groups of tribes. "Certain tribes appear to have emphasised
their canoe migration tradition and descent from crew members more than the
others. In particular, the Hauraki, Waikato, and King Country tribes (Tainui
canoe) and the Rotorua and Taupo tribes (Te Arawa canoe) appear to have placed
special emphasis on their descent from a particular canoe migration" (Biggs
1966:451).
3. Local traditions
Each tribal group, whether tribe or subtribe, maintained its discrete
traditional record, which generally concerned "great battles and great men";
these stories were linked together by genealogy, which in Māori tradition, is an
elaborate art. "In some cases the story is continuous and internally consistent
from the migration down to the present. In other cases it is fragmentary and
discontinuous earlier than about 1600" (Biggs 1966:453).
Easter Island Moai Statues