Maori Culture

Parker 1 Angelica Parker Professor Daugavietis Cultural Geography 15 December 2008 Maori Culture Why do raindrops fall from the sky onto the earth? Legend says that the sky father and the earth mother united and had six children together. Unfortunately, the children and their parents were far too close together in the darkness. As a result, the children planned their own spaces to live. One of the six children suggested putting his father, the sky father, away out of the darkness. The sky above the earth was created when the sky father left his family. The people say that the raindrops in the sky are actually the tears that sky father weeps for his “Papa” or earth mother (Theunissen 43). This old oral history is just one of the many legends that the traditional Maori cultural group of New Zealand believes today. Estimated to have come to the islands of New Zealand over 1,500 years ago, the Maori people struggle today to maintain their remaining cultural distinctions (Theunissen 4). The current total population of the Maori people living in New Zealand is estimated at 642,900 for all age groups, with a median age of about twenty-three years old (Statistics web). The total estimated population for the North and South Islands of New Zealand is 4,035,461 (Kurian 1730). The Maori people make up about fifteen percent of the total population in New Zealand today (Theunissen 5). The arrival of the Europeans, war, and disease significantly dropped the Maori population numbers. All of these factors contributed to “the Maori population [falling] from about 200,000 to just 42,000” in the start of the 1900’s (Theunissen 20). However, today the “the most significant minority group is the Maori” who believe that their ancestors migrated to the North Island over a thousand years ago (Kurian 1730).

Parker 2 Many different stories have been told regarding the arrival of the Maori culture to the North and South Islands, and historians still debate over them today. The Maori people hold to their own oral history that states, “that the Maori migrants left to escape warfare and the demands of excessive tribute” (Gall 489). The Maori people believe that the first Maori came from the island of Hawaiki in seven canoes. Those first Maori inhabitants are believed to have landed in the northeast coast of the North Island in New Zealand (Theunissen 14). Today, Wellington the capital of New Zealand is located on this North Island along with the largest city of the two Islands called Auckland (Theunissen 7). For the first couple hundred years upon arrival of the Islands, the tribal people were “living around the top and bottom of the North Island and along the coasts of the South Island” (Theunissen 17). In these two islands, the Maori spoke their own distinct Maori language but then changed over the years as the Maori today speak English. The language family that their language is from is called the Austronesian language family; the Maori is a part of the Tahitic branch of Easter Polynesian. Before the Europeans reached the Islands, the Maori spoke in two different dialects. The two dialects were different for the North and South Islands, the South Island dialect now unfortunately being lost. However, the dialect that is remembered today has been used to “[pass] down stories, songs, myths, and legends from generation to generation over hundreds of years” (Theunissen 40). The Maori language was admitted as an official language in 1987 in the Maori Language Bill (Kurian 1730). The impact of globalization and human contact has caused, “all present-day speakers of Maori also speak English” (Gall 490). The Maori language and English are among the national languages of New Zealand today (Theunissen 40). Among the stories and legends that have been passed down by the Maori, language is their distinct set of religious beliefs. The Maori were polytheistic before European contact through missionaries, priests and present day globalization. Multiple gods such as the god Tane

Parker 3 who was the god of forests and trees and Ragi the god of the sky were just two of their gods. In addition, legend says, “some gods were friendly, but all of them were capable of awesome displays of anger” (Theunissen 42). Their gods along with ancestor worship became important in their traditional religion. Signs that any of their gods were unhappy with the Maori were displayed when the people would suffer from any sickness, accident, or death. However, European contact brought about Christianity and “the first English missionaries arrived in New Zealand in 1814” (Theunissen 43). “Today, the Maori belong to a variety of Christian denominations, the largest of which are the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, and Mormon churches” (Jones 5682). The Anglican religion is strongest form of Christianity in New Zealand today as approximately twenty-four percent of the population practices it. Fifteen percent of the population is accounted for the Roman Catholic belief (Kurian 1730). As a result, some of the Maori prophets have mixed Christianityand Maori beliefs to create their own new religions. Religions such as Pai Marire (Good and Peaceful) and the belief of Rua Kenana who built a religious community at Maungapotau have developed since (Theunissen 43). Although their belief in polytheism may not be distinct, the Maori people are very distinct in terms of their traditional dancing, tattooing, and greeting. Dancing and singing both go along together in their culture. “The Maori [have] songs for every occasion- love songs, chants and prayers to the gods, songs to welcome visitors” (Theunissen 38). Maori action songs are known as “haka,” and those action songs are “one of the best-known cultural traditions” of the culture today (Gall 492). The message of the song is relied using “hands, feet, legs, bodies, tongues, and even eyes” (Theunissen 39). Often, the dancers will break out in chants that “[recount] genealogies or the exploits of ancestors” (Gall 492). Tattooing was a strong tradition among both the men and women of the culture and is still practiced by some today. “Both men and women wore ‘moko’, or face tattoos” these face tattoos

Parker 4 were worn by warriors on their whole faces, buttocks and thighs (Theunissen 35). The most popular “moko” designs included spirals and curves that would appear in various places on the body for men. The women tattooed only their chins and lips while the men tattooed their whole faces. The “moko” designs “were made with dye, carved into the skin with small chisels made of bird bones” (Theunissen 35). A few of the Maori of today still paint themselves with the dye in their traditional moko designs (Theunissen 35). Traditional “moko” facial designs were sometimes met face to face by the pressing of noses in the traditional Maori greeting called “hongi.” “To press noses together is to ‘hongi,’” according to the Maori (Macdonald 29). The Maori consider this greeting much friendlier in comparison to the kiss on the check or handshake. The gretting is also used at the end of a welcome where “people shake hands and press noses” (Macdonald 29).