MAORI CEMETERIES

Taranaki Daily News, 14 January 1933, Page 13 (Supplement)

MAORI CEMETERIES

NATIVE OBSERVANCES

(By

C.M.H.)

Recent articles in the press of Taranaki on the subject of a trip to Waikawau by a party of men interested in anthropological research raise a question that to some people is of considerable moment. ' No one will doubt that the party had a genuine desire to secure, if possible, evidence and information of a race of people inhabiting New Zealand before the last great migration of the Maori people somewhere about the year 1350. Reports of the expedition indicate that in the locality searched numerous human remains were found. In fact the locality, it is stated, has frequently been visited by people for some years past. The writer was more than pleased to see Mr. W. H. Skinner’s letter in the Daily News protesting against research in a locality that to the old-time as well as the present day average Maori would be regarded as a sanctuary which should not be disturbed or molested in any way. Mr. Skinner wrote with conviction, and' if his statements were outspoken he is entitled to every attention, as his opinions are backed by a store of knowledge gathered in a life-long study of questions concerning the Maori. It surely does not matter whether the locality in question is a recognised ura pa or cemetery, or just a repository of human remains. To search amongst the bones of any comparatively modem sepulchre seems to be taking a liberty that is not warranted. Even if the site at Waikawau Valley is not a recognised i cemetery in every sense of the word, it is a place of the dead. Even if the remains are those of a cannibal feast, surely they are entitled to sanctuary. If the remains of any of our own ancestors, say three or even six generations back, were searched over or in any way molested, we i would protest most violently, and if those ancestors had been killed and eaten by enemies we would feel that they had suffered sufficiently without their bones being handled and examined by any persons whether engaged in research work or not We all know that research work in Egypt, England, Europe and such noted fields of investigation has brought to light much valuable, historical and anthropological* material for which 'the world is much richer in knowledge, but in such- cases thousands of years have elapsed between the dates of burial and exhumation. It must be remembered, too, that in Egypt and other research work is under strict • Governmental and Museum supervision. The nations whose dead and past are brought to the light of day have in most Cases disappeared from the face of the earth, or have removed to remote parts of the world. But is it so in New Zealand?

Noted Maori historians have left ample evidence that New Zealand was inhabited by people before the 1350 migration, but from the information they gathered first hand there is little difference between the former type of human being and the niore recent arrival. There may have been differences in the shades of skin-colour, but in customs (and we are. told in language also) there was not more distinction than the lapse of isolation of the first. comers would account for.

My reading of Maori history does indicate that in some localities human remains have been discovered in places of which the local people had no knowledge, but I certainly have read nothing that indicates that such remains had different shaped skulls or any other peculiarities which suggested that they belonged to any prehistorical form of mankind. I do not, of course, state that this is definitely the case. Such a statement would be too presumptuous. Members of the Waikawau party have objected strongly to some of the opinions expressed in the Daily News. One of them is reported to have stated that a skeleton with the jawbone in-its correct position was, found “in an upright position, and Maoris were never burjed in that fashion.” The statement is not a very full one, but if it is intended to convey the idea that burial did not take place in an upright sitting posture, then the statement is hard to understand. One of our greatest historians on the Maori, the late Mr. Elsdon Best, states: — “The first task performed after the death of a person was the trussing of the body ere it became rigid, for trussed burial in a sitting position was the common mode of disposing of the dead. This ancient practice that hails from Polynesia and Asia, and Europe and early Egypt, seems to have been one of the widest known methods of burial. The old Peruvian practice of drawing the knees of the corpse up to the breast, under the chin, and securing the arms across them over the breast, describes the Maori usage.”Mr. E. Tregear, a scholarly historian who has left behind him many valuable contributions to Maori lore as well as dictionaries in Maori and other Polynesian dialects, says on the subject:— “The legs of the/corpse were bent into a sitting position and drawn up till the knees touched the neck, being fastened in that position with a plaited girdle . . . This crouching- position . was almost universally adopted if of a man, but women were often ‘laid out’ at full length as if asleep. In some cases, immediately the breathing ceased, the body was bound in a sitting position to a stake so as to keep it firm, the face turned to the eastward . . . Sometimes the dead remained bound in their sitting positions in a cave.” These extracts are not guesswork on the part of historians; they are facts that are incontrovertible.

Another statement reported to have been made by a member of the research party runs:—“But I would point out that it is most unusual to find a cemetery on shifting sand.” Here again one of the historians quoted above gives very definite information. Mr. Elsden Best, in discussing places of burial, states: —

“Sandhill burial was common in some parts .where loose formation of sand was found on the coast. This was an easy task—the covering of the body in the face of a sand drift. Shifting sand dunes have exposed many human remains and implements and armaments,' and ornaments of stone and bone that had been buried with the dead.- A famed sand dune burial place for centuries was that known as Opihi, at Whakatane, known in full as ‘Opihi Whanaunga Kore’ (Opihi the relationless), presumably because it had no regard for any person, none was spared, all came to it in the end. In these cases of swamp and sand burial the bones were not recovered. The former mode was favoured in the case of a tama-a-hara, or ito, that is, a person possessed of deadly enemies who would be overjoyed at the discovery of his grave.” Coming nearer home the writer knows l of a number of localities in Taranaki where burial regularly and for long periods took place in sandhills or shifting sand. It is not my intention to name actual sites, as I have considerable respect and reverence for the burial places

.of man, be he pakeha.or Maori. .• ■ Another things—the Maori of old chose ; secret places which were not revealed? to all and sundry. It has been my r privilege during the past 40 years to. know a few of the old learned patriarchs of the Maori race, and to reveal/ some of their secrets would be a great breach of confidence on my part. I am, ? in common with many other searchers of ; old Maori ornaments, weapons and im-,' plemcnts, very pleased when by some? means I become the possessor of such/ articles,, but I would nr . be a party to i hunting among human remains to 'secure? such, despite the fact that ,in some such secret places I know of there 1 is a rich store of treasure of; the' enumerated above. . . J