“PASSING MAORI MEMORIES”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 258, 28 September 1935, Page 2

“PASSING MAORI MEMORIES”

Recorded by J.H.S. for the “Manawatu Evening Standard.” Whaka Momore (Sacrifice or Suicide). Seldom indeed do we hear of a Maori suicide. Our people who take their own lives are generally the victims of belated remorse, jealousy, dissipation, or mental aberration. The Maori whaka momore was one who made voluntary sacrifice for the honour of his tribe or his dearest relative. He did not for one moment hesitate to take his own life or that , of his wife, daughter, or son, in order to vindicate some good cause of which he alone may have understood the nature. He was a supreme hero, comparable only to the Patriarch of tlie Old Testament who offered his son in sacrifice. It is hardly possible to conceive -any atrocity or sacrifice of which a virile and otherwise sane Maori may not be capable while under the influence of -whaka momore. The Maori war league of 1854 was purely a sacrificial rite, courting reprisal and death, rather than that their people should lose their one immortal heritage, “the land that lives for ever.” Next in order of its capacity to confer and maintain the, sacred mana of the land, the person, or the family, was the fidelity of man or women toward one another. To this end there was no sacrifice too great. There are many instances where splendid lives have been voluntarily offered up for the life partner or their people. A Maori man or woman would even commit a capital crime so that imjn-ison-ment or death might be their lot, in order to appease the spirit which presided over this mysterious law. The greater the wrong which had been imposed upon one’s family or tribe, the greater the sacrifice needed to repair it.

Colonel Gudgeon’s camp at Mokoia was visited by a young warrior Takitaki who was an open enemy under Titilrowaru. He deliberately removed some rifles, for which he knew the penalty was death, and asked to be shot. The magistrate sentenced him to three months in gaol; but Gudgeon knew he would commit suicide in order to remove some otherwise indelible stigma from his family name, and procured his release in order that his father might securo a substitute martyr, voluntary or otherwise. Takitaki led a forlorn hope against Turuturu Mokai, and there fulfilled the sacrifice.

Nga toa (Brave men). Colonel Gudgeon gives' us many instances of the outstanding bravery of the Maori and his love of war. He does so in reply to Dr. Thompson’s opinion “that caution has made the Maori and a hater of war,” and to John AVhite’s statement “that the Maori race is not fond of war.” The colonel says the doctor had no knowledge of Maori character or history, and White was essentially a man of peace, hence their error. In Gudgeon’s “Maori Wars” he concludes from knowledge of Maori tradition and personal experience that there never lived a people who took more pleasure in the excitement of killing or being killed, or who met death so bravely.

Despite the degeneracy arising out of contact with our machine gun bravery, wo have but to seratcr the mildest Maori to find a warrior under that skin of submission. In his fighting days the chief had 10,000 warriors; to-day but 100. A century back he had simply, to commandeer every potential mother, and double the population of fighters; now he faces the sadness of a dying race. Peace is his only hope. God forbid that we should ever be faced by similar conditions with which to estimate our own mental or moral degeneracy. Instances of supreme courage since 1860 may be readily recalled. No. 2 redoubt at Waitara was stormed by SOO Ngati Awa, who lost over 50 men and were surrounded before they surrendered. Titikowaru persisted in the attack on Sentry Hill until he lost the flower of his tribe in attempting the impossible. At Puke te kuere (the hill of fools) the Grenadiers of the 40th Regiment were practically wiped . out by the Maori fighters. Then in the tribal fight at Moutoa Island the tragedy of the Kilkenny cats was re-enacted to save the slaughter of the white populace of Whanganui. When a Maori means mischief or seeks just reprisal, his enemy had better take every proper precaution, for there will be no firing at long range. The Tohunga. The tohunga was the sole medium of communication with the ancestral gods. He was the exponent of the karakia (invocation) a word wronglv translated as prayer. There is no supplication in a karakia; for the gods of the Maori would despise any man who debased himself before them. No true Maori would dare confess to his atua that “he was a miserable sinner, unfit to appear before the throne.” Karakias were the personal possession of the tohunga whose services had a market value so long as, by karakia ho could defeat the sinister purpose of an evil god or gain for the people benefits from those of good intent. Those chosen as recipients and exponents of the traditional lore of the tribe were always of high mental capacity. This end was safeguarded by the fact that only very clever boys were selected as tauira (disciples) for training in the whare maiere (school of mystery), but few of these could assimilate the vast stores of tribal and family history, songs, chants and karakia before he could be a tohunga. Sayings an<J death-bed utterances of famous tohunga were handed down from father to son for 20 generations (500 years), for a Maori holds that the approach of death endows a man with wisdom and the gift of prophecy. In the very early Maori history, a famous warrior priest Tiriwa said “Kei tua i te awe kapara he tangata ke mana e nolio te ao nei, he ma (when the tattooed faces have gone, strangers will occupy our world, and they will be white). When Cook arrived, they saw that Tiriwa had really foretold our coming. In the good old days, if a man fell sick it was attributed to wahme maltutu (woman’s witchcraft), or .was it witchery ? Men died only of old age (five generations) or m battle. All other deaths were uncanny and were therefore ascribed to an evil spirit. A tohunga did not supplicate assistance, he demanded it, and so long as his mana lasted; he received it. These are the conclusions of Colonel Gudgeon, a master of the subject.