Modern Interpretations Of Old Maori Life

Te Ao Hou, September 1963, Page 3

Modern Interpretations Of Old Maori Life We all have different ideas as to what it must have been like to live in past times, for our interpretation of the past, like our attitudes towards modern things, depends so much upon our own individual personalities. But our understanding of the past also depends upon what we are taught about it, and what we are able to learn by reading books and looking at the other evidence that is available to us. So though we all think of the old Maori life in different, individual ways, we do tend to share some common ideas about it, even though these assumptions may be unconscious ones. For instance, we cannot help but be influenced by the manner in which stories about old Maori life are told to us: the things which are included, and the things which are left out. In his recent lecture in the Auckland University's winter series Dr J. E. Ritchie, of the psychology department of Victoria University, Wellington, comments as follows on modern beliefs about the old Maori life:— ‘My reading of what Maori society was like tells me that it was not a cooperative, idyllic civilization borne by a handsome, strong, virile and intelligent folk. Strong they may have been because the weak died. Their civilization rested on the enslavement of many. Their beauty like all beauty, lay in the eye of the beholder … The living, vivid reality of the old Maori ways, its heat and fire in battle and love, the drenching ubiquity of its religious animism … have been made cosy and pale. We have taken the myths and the culture heroes and made them into bedtime tales for the immature. We have drawn the teeth of the ancient Maori way, washed it clean, cropped its hair, tidied it up and made it Christian-simple, palatable and nice.? There are a number of points here which it would be interesting to discuss at length. It is true, for instance, that Maori civilization ‘rested on the enslavement of many’, but it seems that this has been true of almost every civilization in history. Also, is it really true that all beauty is in the eye of the beholder? And what, exactly, does this expression mean anyway? Dr Ritchie is surely not applying it to Maori culture, for if one were to do so, and thus to imply that there are no objective criteria to be used in considering the aesthetic achievements of their society, it would hardly be meaningful to speak of Maori ‘civilization’. It is certainly true, however, that Maori myths and historical legends have been greatly weakened and sentimentalized in their modern re-tellings; they have, indeed, largely been turned into ‘bedtime tales for the immature.’ It is, of course, inevitable that these myths and stories should not have the same meaning now as they had in the days when they formed an integral part of Maori religion—and when this religion encompassed the whole of Maori life. (In the same way, Greek myths and literature do not have the same meaning for modern readers, whether or not these readers are Greek, as they did for their original owners). But it is not inevitable that modern interpretations of Maori culture, in particular of the history, literature and art, should so often have made it appear so ‘cosy and pale,’ to use Dr Ritchie's expressive words. This has probably happened because New Zealand is now a rather cosy and pale sort of country, but it shouldn't happen; instead of abusing our Maori inheritance in this way, we should be using it to enrich our imaginations and our culture. It is in the interests of all of us, whether Maori or Pakeha, to see that this is what takes place. If this is not what is meant by two-way integration, what is? If we wish to learn about the true nature of the old Maori life, one of the best ways of doing this is to go back to the original sources as much as we can. Though they were usually published by Pakehas, the oldest versions of Maori myths and stories were told—and often written down—by Maoris, and by Maoris who still belonged to ‘the living, vivid reality of the old Maori way’. Continuing ‘Te Ao Hou's’ policy of making available some of the best of those early stories which are now out of print, in this issue we begin the serialization of the long story ‘Ponga and Puhihuia’. This is one of the best of the old Maori stories, and so far as we know it has not been re-printed since it first appeared in 1889 in John White's six-volume treasure-house, ‘Ancient History of the Maori.’