Books

Te Ao Hou, Spring 1954, Page 19

Books The Life Story of Maggie Papakura J. F. CODY There is a tendency, when surveying Maori writers, not to look beyond the two recently fallen giant totaras, Ngata and Hiroa; but there are many smaller trees that grew beneath their spreading branches. One of these was Makereti, who was born a chieftainess of the Arawas at Waikarewarewa in 1872 and died a member of English County society at Oxford in 1930. Makereti is better known as Maggie Papakura, hostess and guide to the thermal wonders of Rotorua. T. K. Penniman, Secretary to the Committee for Anthropology in the University of Oxford, who collected and edited Makereti's writings and contributed a brief biography to her posthumous work The Old Time Maori, explains how she acquired her better known name. She came by the name in a curious way. Europeans who saw her as a child naturally shortened her name to Maggie, and an unusually inquisitive visitor tried to find out whether she had another Maori name. She had not, of course, but she was willing to oblige them, and as she was standing near a well-known Geyser called Papakura, she promptly said ‘Papakura’, and the name stuck to her family. Makereti spent many months writing and rewriting her manuscript until she was satisfied that what she had written was true in spirit as well as in fact. To give her work the final seal of authenticity she wrote regularly to her ‘old people’ as she affectionately called them, both for their permission to publish certain facts and for the guarantee that they were faithfully recorded. Finally, the completed work was sent to New Zealand to make certain that nothing was published without the sanction of the tribe and that everything was correctly described. The care taken by her literary executor is the main reason why The Old Time Maori did not appear until some years after the author's death. Makereti's book is really her biography, and should be in the hands of everyone who wishes to understand something of Maori mentality. The first chapter on social organisation and relationship explains clearly and simply the different methods of assessing kinship, and why the average Pakeha has the impression that every Maori is more or less closely related to every other Maori. It is indeed a striking illustration of the fact that there can be two points of view, both scientifically accurate, about such a matter as blood relationship. The chapter on marriage contains an infallible recipe for regaining a wayward wife or husband, as well as for turning the girl friend's affections in the right direction. There are chapters on children, food, fire, houses and weapons, every one of which is interesting and simply written.