Maori writing: old and new

Press, 14 October 1978, Page 10

Maori writing: old and new

Maori Poetry. An Introductory Anthology. By Margaret Orbell. Heinemann. 104 pp. $3.85. Tihe Maori Ora: Aspects of Maoritanga. Edited by Michael King. Methuen. 11l pp. $4.95. (Reviewed by Ashley Spice)

Margaret Orbell’s introductory anthology to Maori poetry contains a satisfactorily wide representation of the different forms of the large and complex stock of traditional Maori poems and of more recent poems in the traditional forms. In the explanatory notes she wears the mantle of her impressive scholarship in the field lightly. This book is truly one for the “beginner,” but is no less authoritative for that.

For the most part these notes explain the allusions — historical or legendary — which would otherwise be missed by the uninformed reader, but they are never so detailed or imposing that they distract attention from the poems. The book is commended by its publishers as providing an insight into Maori ways of life. This it does, because to the traditional Maori “poetry’’ was indeed not an esoteric art, but “part of the fabric of life, an

essential means of expression and communication.”

But it would be quite wrong to regard the book as an anthropological text. The poetry is literature in its own right, subtle, moving and with a power to affect the emotions and thoughts of people living in today’s quite different society. The book is a further demonstration that Maori culture contains rich veins yet to be exploited to enrich our national life. In its popular, accessible character, the book is a welcome step towards this goal.

In “Tihe Maori Ora” the voices are those of modern Maoris. The phrase is one which introduces a speech and has connotations of “Now it is my turn. . . I am about to speak.” There is no denying that Maori voices have been too often ignored in New Zealand, and this is perhaps reason enough to overlook the book’s sometimes strained, shrill tone as it gives expression to Maori attitudes and values.

But the tone is at times too strident and assertive and the suspicion sometimes arises that if, as many of the contributors claim, traditional Maori myths and the post-European experience of Maoris has such

immediate relevance to the lives of most Maoris, the point would not have to be made so vehemently.

But this is not, for most of its pages, the book’s dominant tone. The three most illuminating _ essays are those which look at Maori movements in post-settler times — the King Movement, Ratana and Ringatu, the last a most moving personal account. These movements have, undoubtedly, done much to shape Maori values and attitudes today. They are certainly neglected aspects of New Zealand’s history and Maoris have a right to feel aggrieved that they have been neglected.

The book also sheds light on neglected aspects of contemporary life such as the survival of marae custom and the place of the Maori in New Zealand literature, with Patricia Grace making a convincing plea that Maoris be left to write about Maori things. This is not a book that pakeha readers can shrug off. It may have its faults, but it sounds a needed warning — to leave it up to the Maoris themselves to come to terms with their different past and their different place in contemporary New Zealand. After years of neglect or patronising, it should indeed be their turn.