MAORIS IN PERSPECTIVE

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33857, 31 May 1975, Page 10

MAORIS IN PERSPECTIVE

The Maori, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. By A. W. Reed. Reed Tourist Library. 136 pp. N.Z. price $2.95. Tourist publications too often oversimplify and present an inaccurate picture of native cultures. A. W. Reed, who is well-known in New Zealand publishing circles, and as an authority on the Maori people, has done solid research and neatly consolidated extensive data for this compact book. Mr Reed presents an authentic picture of the Maori race as it was yesterday and is today, and makes some cautious, sensible predictions of what might happen to the race in the future. The Maori of the past is presented without romanticism. Mr Reed summarises events well, from the mythical origins, through the Great Migration and the development of classical Maori culture. He presents a two-sided picture of the Maori Wars during which the classical culture as a whole was destroyed. It is particularly pleasing that Mr Reed has obtained his information from a wide cross-section of different tribes. This removes a lot of the inaccuracy which appears in too many of

the popular novels and handbooks of classical Maori life, which present the beliefs and ways of life of one tribe as the beliefs and ways of life of the whole Maori people. Mr Reed shows the Maori of today as the Maori is today, belonging to a race almost integrated but still facing problems of its own. The struggles of the young Maoris to adapt to the “fast” pace of civilisation in our cities are given due prominence: so are the achievements of those older Maoris who are playing a competent role in modern life. The text is complemented by excellent illustrations (colour and black and white) drawn from a number of places. The traditional life of the Maori is depicted in pleasing variety. Probably just as interesting to overseas visitors who will buy this book as a souvenir are the pictures of modern Maori leaders, especially of Princess Te Puea Herangi. a great leader who did so much for her people, of the present Maori Queen, Dame Te Ata-i-Rangi-Kaahu, and of two Cabinet Ministers, Mr Rata and Mrs Tirikatene-Sullivan.