An Appreciation of THE SPIRAL TATTOO

Te Ao Hou, December 1966, Page 49

An Appreciation of THE SPIRAL TATTOO by Alan Armstrong A full scale production for broadcasting of a Maori legend is something of an occasion. Listeners to National Stations on 15 August heard an hour and a half long production of The Spiral Tattoo. This was a dramatization by Mrs Adele Schafer of Wellington of the ancient legend of Mataora and Niwareka — which appeared in both Maori and English in Issue Number 50 of Te Ao Hou. The Spiral Tattoo tells of Mata-o-ra who is married to Niwareka, one of the Turehu or fairy folk. Mataora quarrels with his wife and strikes her and she leaves him to return to her old homeland in the Underworld. Mataora follows her there and after many adventures he finds her and regains her affections. During the course of his search, Mataora is ridiculed by the denizens of the Underworld because his facial designs are only painted on. He begs the local people to let his manhood be tested by having himself tattoed in the same manner as they. As a result he learns the art of tattoing, an art which he is later to pass on to the whole of the Maori people. Eventually the two lovers return to the world of men on the back of the sacred bird, Korotangi. In the June 1965 issue of Te Ao Hou there was an interesting article by Mrs Schafer concerning the underlying meaning of the legend of Mataora and Niwareka and theorising on its affinity with some of the mythology of India and South East Asia. Mrs Schafer believes that Maori and the other Polynesian languages have developed from Sanscrit, the ancient language of India, and in her private studies she has carried out painstaking documentation of this theory. In her article in Te Ao Hou she points out that in Sanscrit ‘nivara’ means ‘rice’. In the Maori legend, the name Niwareka could be derived from ‘nivara’. If this were so it could be evidence of an interesting link with the mythologies of many countries which the tale of a person journeying to the Underworld and coming back again with the aid of someone who loves them, is a symbol for the grain which goes away into the earth by the act of planting and which in the Spring shoots forth again. Probably the best known of the many legends of descent into, and resurrection from, the Underworld is the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Thus Adele Schafer has subtitled her play for radio An Orpheus Legend of the Maori. Adele Schafer was born in Vienna in 1905 and came to this country in 1939 as a refugee from Nazism. Since then she has made a study of Maori mythology and dedicated herself to bringing Maori legend to life by dramatising it in a way which makes it meaningful in this modern day and age. The Spiral Tattoo was originally conceived as a three act play for the stage and later adapted and condensed somewhat for broadcasting. The N.Z.B.C. has also bought another of Mrs Schafer's plays but no production plans for it have yet been announced. The Spiral Tattoo was produced in the Corporation's Wellington studios by Antony

Groser. Mr Groser handled his large cast with a sure hand to achieve a result which was wonderfully true to the spirit and conception of the author. An interesting innovation was the use of electronic sound images especially composed by Douglas Lilburn. Despite occasional passages which were noisy and distracting, these images played a most important part in creating the atmosphere of the play. There was a surrealistic quality about the effects which served initially to heighten tension and expextancy as the Underworld was entered, and later to create an atmosphere which gave the dream sequences an eerie credibility. Technical adviser on Maori matters was Bill Kerekere. It is, however, a matter for the greatest regret that in a play concerning a race with a strongly developed a sense of the dramatic as the Maori, it was necessary to have all the parts played by Pakeha. Although the pronunciation of Maori was for the most part exceptionally good, the voices lacked the timbre and richness and the subtle accent of the Maori voice at its best. The main criticism of The Spiral Tattoo stems probably from the fact that, as a stage play, it was conceived originally in visual rather than auditory terms. The transposition from a stage play to one for broadcasting was not entirely successful, in that some listeners I am sure, would have experienced difficulty in following the progression of the story, despite a sketchy outline provided by the announcer before the programme began. This is indeed a defect, and yet not a grave one for The Spiral Tattoo is not intended to tell a cohesive and entertaining story. (‘Stories are only for children’ says Mrs Schafer). The legend is a means whereby the author seeks to hold a mirror to an ancient culture and to interpret its psychological subtleties in terms which are meaningful to the modern radio listener. For this aim to succeed and for the result to be credible the terms must also be ones which are not incongruous to the mood and age of the original. In this, Adele Schafer has succeeded and succeeded well. Thus in the visions which Mataora has as he undergoes the painful ordeal of being tattoed, the author digs into the subconscious of her hero and calls forth the fear and guilt images which she feels an old-time Maori might have experienced. Mataora dreams of his father Hotoke who was killed in battle. In the dream Hotoke warns his son of the emptiness of honour gained in war. There is a timelessness in Hotoke's sadness for ‘life