The world of the Maori

Press, 21 November 1981, Page 15

The world of the Maori

Maori: The Origin, Art and Culture of the Maori People of New Zealand. By Barry Mitcalfe. Coromandel Press, 1981. 104 pp. $9.95.

(Reviewed by

John Wilson)

The text of this work, which combines history, archaeology and anthropology, is refreshingly undogmatic and reassuringly drawn from a large variety of sources. It neither romanticises the life of the prehistoric Maori into that of the noble savage, nor places undue emphasis on the hardships of their lives or on customs and practices which seem strange and even horrible to modem eyes. Mitcalfe draws a simple, but not simplified picture of a culture and implies that it should be understood and judged on its own terms. The first three chapters provide a brief narrative of Maori migrations to New Zealand, and of the development over time of Maori society and culture once the settlements were established on these islands. The remaining chapters are topical — dealing with religion, art, how food was won and prepared, living patterns, warfare and other matters — and provide a summary of what is known today about “classic” or Pa Maori life. The book is generously illustrated with drawings and old photographs which make it markedly easier for readers to reconstruct for themselves the circumstances of pre-European Maori life.

It is not an analytical or interpretative work and contains no great surprises or sensations for people familiar with modern writing and research about the Maori in pre-European times. Some of the more general readers, to whom the book is clearly pitched, will be interested by the account given of the arrival of the Maori in New Zealand and by the idea floated that as groups migrated south, Northland became regarded as the ancestral Hawaiki by some. They may also be surprised to learn that the Maori was not quite the perfect conservationist by modern standards, although such standards are not, of course, applicable to pre-European times. The book is presented as a readable, accurate summary of academic knowledge about how the Maori reached New Zealand and how they lived when they got here. It is likely to find its main use in secondary schools and teachers’ colleges within New Zealand. But it is a pleasure to have at last a book about the pre-European Maori which can safely be sent overseas for non-specialist, but interested readers. It is a popular work, without being either rosily romanticised or condescendingly simplified. Remark must be made about the book’s price. To put an authoritative, welldesigned and illustrated and substantial volume in readers’ hands for less than $lO is something for which the author’s Coromandel Press deserves thanks indeed.