The Maori: The History and Legacy of New Zealand’s Indigenous People

Description

*Includes pictures *Includes contemporary accounts *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading “When one house dies, a second lives.” - Maori proverb In 1769, Captain James Cook’s historic expedition in the region would lead to an English claim on Australia, but before he reached Australia, he sailed near New Zealand and spent weeks mapping part of New Zealand’s coast. Thus, he was also one of the first to observe and take note of the indigenous peoples of the two islands. His instructions from the Admiralty were to endeavor at all costs to cultivate friendly relations with tribes and peoples he might encounter, and to regard any native people as the natural and legal possessors of any land they were found to occupy. Cook, of course, was not engaged on an expedition of colonization, so when he encountered for the first time a war party of Maori, he certainly had no intention of challenging their overlordship of Aotearoa, although he certainly was interested in discovering more about them. It was on October 6, 1769 that land was sighted from the masthead of the HMS Endeavour. The ostensible purpose of the expedition was to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun, but in sealed orders, to be opened only when these astrological observations were complete, he was instructed to search for evidence of the fabled Terra Australis. Approaching from the east, having rounded Cape Horn and calling in at Tahiti, the Endeavour arrived off the coast of New Zealand, and two days later it dropped anchor in what would later be known as Poverty Bay. No sign of life or habitation was seen until on the morning of the 9 October when smoke was observed to be rising inland, indicating that the territory was indeed inhabited. Cook and a group of sailors set off for shore in two boats and leaving four men behind to mind the boats, the remainder set off inland over a line of low hills. The sentries, however, were surprised by the arrival of a group of four Maori, who adopted an aggressive posture, and when one lifted a lance to hurl, he was immediately shot down. The impression that all of this left on Cook and the scientific members of the expedition was mixed. By then there had already been several encounters with Polynesian people scattered about the South Pacific, and although occasionally warlike, there were none quite so aggressive as the Maori. In fairness, it must be added that the Maori understanding of Cook’s appearance, and what it represented was by necessity partial, and in approaching it they simply fell back on default behavior, applicable to any stranger approaching their shores. The presence on board the Endeavour of Tupaia allowed for a certain amount of superficial exchange, and a little trade, but little else, and Cook was intrigued by this upright, warlike and handsome people. Taking into account similarities of appearance, customs and languages spread across a vast region of scattered islands, it was obvious that the Polynesian race emerged from a single origin, and that origin Cook speculated was somewhere in the Malay Peninsula or the “East Indies.” In this regard, he was not too far from the truth. The origins of the Polynesian race have been fiercely debated since then, and it was only relatively recently, through genetic and linguistic research, that it can now be stated with certainty that the Polynesian race originated on the Chinese mainland and the islands of Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Oceania was, indeed, the last major region of the Earth to be penetrated and settled by people, and Polynesia was the last region of Oceania to be inhabited. The vehicle of this expansion was the outrigger canoe, and aided by tides and wind patterns, a migration along the Malay Archipelago, and across the wide expanses of the South Pacific, began sometime between 3000 and 1000 BCE, reaching the western Polynesian Islands in about 900 BCE. Review: Read this book before you read the other two New Zealand books by Charles River’s Editors - I like this e-book, The Māori: The History and Legacy of New Zealand’s Indigenous People since it explains the culture and history of the Maori. One issue that I had while reading the other Charles River’s Editor books about New Zealand was why the Maori seem to have an aptitude for trading. The Maori had a concept called “homai o homai” which means a gift for a gift. So whenever the tribal subunits met each other, the visiting group provided a gift to the group being visited creating a sense of reciprocation between the groups. The book indicated that other native groups such as Native Americans and aboriginal societies were usually decimated by diseases brought by the colonizers, but the Maori society started to decline because of the introduction of muskets. The e-book describes the musket wars between the various Maori groups that lasted roughly 40 years. Next, the e-book describes the New Zealand wars which were similar to the traditional British colonial wars which necessitated the pacification of the natives. Several prominent Maori politicians were also described in the e-book. Lastly, the e-book described the participation of the Maori in both world wars. I wish that this e-book had come out before the other two e-books about New Zealand because this book enhanced my understanding of the Maori and why they readily fit into the British naval and trade culture. Review: Good background - This short book has useful information about the Maori peoples in New Zealand and colonization by the English. Although I would have liked more depth on 20th century developments, it is sufficient information for someone who knew nothing and is planning a trip to New Zealand.