The Past and Present Age of the Maori

Te Ao Hou, September 1968, Page 56

The Past and Present Age of the Maori ‘Ka pu te ruha, ka hao te Rangatahi’— ‘When the old net ceases to work, the new net goes fishing’ In the past, the Maoris moved from place to place and finally found a home in New Zealand. Needless to say, they were primitive in their way of living. But in his own way, the old Maori got the most out of life by using his native instincts and capabilities. His food was obtained with much more pain and labour than today. His life was centred around the ‘Marae’ and ‘Whare Runanga’, his family and his religious attitude towards his many and varied gods. The everyday life of the primitive Maori was taken almost as much for granted as that of the modern Maori today. Planting a kumara patch in those days was on the same level as walking into the general store to buy canned food today. The whole ‘art of living’, as it was in those days, has been carried through till the present day. One thing has been said about the various tribes of yesterday, that the everyday routine would sometimes be made a little less boring by frequent attacks of other tribes! To my mind, I don't think the Maori people had enough time to be bored. Today, owing to the influence of the European in New Zealand, the old traditions and customs are slowly fading away. If the olden-day Maoris could see Maori pupils at schools actually trying to learn the language of their inheritance, what would they think? Apart from the small struggle that is being made to keep the language and customs going, the old Maori age is slowly disappearing. Now that the old Maori leaders are passing on, we, the younger Maori generation are obliged to not only stick to our own racial feelings, but to also try to fit into this new Pakeha World. Charlie Taipana, Lower VI, Fielding