“Passing Maori Memories”

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7088, 22 February 1933, Page 6

“Passing Maori Memories”

MOKO TUARA [Specially Recorded By “ J.H.S.” For the Times. ] We are familiar only with the Moko or tatu on tho face of the Maori.. The conventional dress of the Pakeha, to which Nature’s own Maori man and woman were complete strangers, have hidden the Moko Tuara on the lower end of the back from sight or mention. A lost tradition has it that only the Upoko Kohua, or low born, were so marked on the face to distinguish their serfdom and that the Rangatira was tattooed with his tribal emblem on the Tuara which was hidden by the Maro (waist mat). After the disastrous retreat from Ngutu o te manu, where Von Tempsky, Buck, Hastings and other officers were shot from the Maori ambush in the tall rata trees, an old Maori was seen trotting along an exposed ridge. Shot after shot was fired, but he halted, lifted liis Maro, turned his back, and bowed his body double. This was regarded as a familiar act of contempt or derision, but he subsequently explained that it was merely to show the distinctive markings of the chief thus made tapu and safe from Pakeha bullets. A more recent use of the Moko Tuara was that of a well-known litigant in the Maori Land Court, Mrs Hamuera. When judgement of the Court was against her, or when her horse won a race, excitement banished all conventions, and in the presence of the crowd, she imitated the old warrior of Ngutu o te manu, merely to show her “birth mark,” the Moko Tuara of Royal descent!