Pacific Islands the Maori of New Zealand Essay

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 1546 words ( 5 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1+

Page 1 of 5

Pacific Islands

The Maori of New Zealand

The tangata whenua, also known as the Maori community are the New Zealand natives. These people are said to have originated from the Eastern Polynesian islands. They are also believed to have travelled to New Zealand several centuries ago, using canoes, an occurrence that was named the "Great Fleet." These people from the Polynesian islands were named the Maori after relocating to New Zealand. They developed their special language, traditional and cultural values (Anderson, Hoeberigs, Mackinnon & Thwaites, 2015).

The Maori and Literary Works

According to Stead (2016), the Maori, just like every other Polynesian community, started to live in the islands, approximately a millennium ago. These islands are now known as New Zealand. They composed, practiced, and performed prayers, love poems, war chants and laments. In addition, they came up with a myth that recorded and explained their past lives, and the stories of their community heroes and gods. With the development of settlement between 1800 and 1900, the Europeans gathered the stories and poems, which they copied using the language of the Maori. The most scenic legends and myths were translated into the English language. They were then published in series and given titles such as Maori Fairy Tales, to whom the European (Pakeha) children were read, or read by themselves. This led to widespread knowledge of legends such as that about the lovers Tutanekai and Hinemoa. They Europeans also learnt about Maui the man-god's exploits. Maui restrained the sun and also fished up from the sea, the island in the North.

From the year 1800 to 1850, the Maori community was highly affected by the 'minor' European diseases. They seemed to decline and the researchers from Europe, recorded in their capacity, the most Maori legend, as they thought that this community would go extinct, and that they needed to preserve their poetic beauty, which was mostly rare and very much figurative, as well as their oral culture. They published some of those items, and stored most of it in libraries. They are used for study to date, especially by the scholars and students from the Maori community, who are interested in knowing about their past culture. Their culture is still sturdily oral, and the strong methods of expressing oneself orally are genealogical stories, story-telling and speech-making (Stead, 2016).

Music, Poem and Chants

The difference between prose and Maori poetry is the latter's fixed form. This means that after it is composed and perfected by its author, the poem is repeated exactly as it is in the form of a song. At times, however, it can be altered slightly; by changing a word or dropping a line, as a result of errors of differences in dialect or memory, by the way it is delivered, which is fundamentally musical, by means of certain unique stylistic features like ellipsis, symbolism, metaphor and allusion. Poems by the Maori have plenty of these, whether ditty, lullaby, derisive song, love song, lament or dirge (National Library of New Zealand, 2010).

Stead (2016) states that even if the Maori groups and individuals have been recognized as performers of different types of music by the Europeans, Maori traditional music lives on. According to the Europeans of the 19th-century, Maori poems had beautiful and remarkable words. However, the music used to be ignored as it was "tuneless and repetitive." The music, however, cannot be separated from its scholars and words. The first two people who published music and text together were Margaret Orbell and Mervyn McLean. They distinguished three types of songs (waiata): waiata aroha, which were songs about love, both of kin and place and sexual love), waiata whaiaaipo; songs that praised the beloved and of courtship) and waiata tangi or laments, for misfortunes and death). There are also gossip songs known as pao, oriori; songs about warrior and chiefly descent, which were meant to teach children their culture, karanga; an in-between of chant and song that was sang/chanted by women to farewell or welcome guests on marae and poi, which were sang along with a dance that was performed using some balls they tied to flax strings and swung rhythmically.

There are chants that are not sung but rather recited. They are kaioraora; which expresses abuse, intent for vengeance or hatred of a rival, karakia; a chant for invocation of a power for protection, haka; which was performed by stamping, rhythmic movements and gestures of fearlessness, such as the war dances with stylized violence, which was the best known, and paatere; which were performed by women to rebuke slander or gossip.

Stuck Writing Your "Pacific Islands the Maori of New Zealand" Essay?

View All Our Example Pacific Islands the Maori of New Zealand Essay

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

The chanter in this case threatened her enemies and expressed high lineage. All the components of the Maori tradition had texts that could not be separated from music (at times) and from gestures. The texts had to be preserved by memorization, before the Europeans intervened. The development of the Maori culture that is used most broadly in the modern world is the action song (waiata-a-ringa), which fits popular melodies by the Europeans to graceful movements (Stead, 2016).

The Maori community seeks traditionally, the use of the traditional songs today, in order to preserve and record their genealogy (whakapapa) and histories. This makes them the same as several other cultures. Enhancement of memory through song has been acknowledged for a long time by the Maori, as developing their prowess in singing waiata and recitation of whakapapa, which record the people's land and history, and transfer down from one generation to the next (Anderson, Hoeberigs, Mackinnon & Thwaites, 2015).

Short Stories/Drama

Up to the 70s, there almost was no relation between the typical Maori tradition, which was largely preserved as a chronological record, and as the improvement of a New Zealand English literature, which came after the colonial period. The writers of the Maori community who appeared after the 2nd World War wrote in the English language, as most of them had little knowledge or none at all, of their native language. In 1966, the first writer of the Maori, Jacqueline Sturm, was the first who appeared in a huge compilation of the short stories of New Zealand. At that time, there was already the first poet who made a strong English impression, Hone Tuwhare, He had produced his very first book by 1964, entitled No Ordinary Sun. The short stories by Witi Ihimaera entitled Pounamu (Greenstone, Greenstone) was collected in the area of Pounamu and in 1972, it was published. His novel, entitled Tangi was published the following year. This was what appeared to finally develop the writers of Maori as a part of contemporary New Zealand writing. In 1987, The Whale Rider was published and in 2002, it was turned into a film. This book was gained an international readership for Ihimaera. In 1978, the Maori narratives by Patricia Grace entitled Mutuwhenua: the Moon Sleeps was published. In 1980, The Dream Sleepers, and Other Stories was published and in 1986 Potiki. These writings were broadly read, mostly in schools in order to encourage the people of New Zealand to study Maori writing (Stead, 2016).

The traditions and character of the Maori community are also expressed in theatres, in plays with aspects of the Maori but written in the English language. One of the best works are Nga tangata toa (The Warrior People) by Hone Kouka, published in 1994, and Waiora (Health), published in 1997 (Stead, 2016).

Legends

Mackinnon, Hoeberigs, Anderson, Thwaites and Mackinnon (2015) state that the New Zealand natives' culture is rich, with a lot of legend and steeped. Legend is inherited from one generation to another through stories about the creation of New Zealand islands, among others.

Maori culture has many p-r?kau (legends). There was one that was entitled M-ui-tikitiki-a-Taranga. The Maori legend states that M-ui-tikitiki-a-Taranga, a demigod, had a clever and cheeky character, and enjoyed pushing boundaries. There was a plot by his brothers to leave him out of a fishing trip they had planned, so he hid right at their canoes front part, and appeared the moment they were far within the sea. It is during this trip that he caught the largest fish ever caught in North Island. The first part of this fish to come out of the sea was Mount Hikurangi, which is found on the East Cape of the island. The Ng-ti Porou community, see the mountain as sacred. They believe they descended directly from M-ui. It is worthwhile to visit Mount Hikurangi. The carvings of M-ui-tikitiki-a-Taranga and family are among the visible arts found here. Other legends that are well-known by the Maori include: Canterbury, the story of T-ne-mahuta-Waipoua, Northland, The story about the lovers, T-t?nekai and Hinemoa- Mokoia Island, Paikea, Rotorua, Whale Rider -- Kaikoura. These legends also live to date because they were inherited from one generation to the next. There are also paintings and arts such as carvings, which show their characters (New Zealand.com, 2016).

REFERENCES

Anderson, E., Hoeberigs, R., Mackinnon, L., & Thwaites, T. (2015). Culturally inclusive arts education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Retrieved….....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Pacific Islands The Maori Of New Zealand" (2016, July 26) Retrieved June 3, 2026, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/pacific-islands-maori-new-zealand-2161195

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Pacific Islands The Maori Of New Zealand" 26 July 2016. Web.3 June. 2026. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/pacific-islands-maori-new-zealand-2161195>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Pacific Islands The Maori Of New Zealand", 26 July 2016, Accessed.3 June. 2026,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/pacific-islands-maori-new-zealand-2161195
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example