KUPU WHAKAATA/Reviews

Tu Tangata, Issue 10, 1 March 1983, Page 23

KUPU WHAKAATA/Reviews

Barry Mitcalfe’s The North appears at a time when several other books on Northland’s, and particularly the Far North’s history have been published. Women of the North by Jane Wordsworth (Collins), Calling Mount Camel by Alice Evans (Hodder & Stoughton) and E V Sale’s Historic Trails of the Far North (Reed) all appeared in 1981. Also recently published to celebrate a hundred years of settlement in New Zealand is Trylin’s study of Croatian and Dalmatian immigrants. Once Rejected, Now Respected.

As Mr Mitcalfe indicates, aspects of Maori and pioneer life persist into modern times in this long settled but so recently developed region. Few are now left of the kaumatua and other old Northland identities who excelled in telling colourful tales of earlier times. Tony Yelash, known as the last of the gumdiggers, died in May. As such people pass on, rich oral history is lost to us. Many records, photographs and old books, once cherished, have been destroyed.

It has been a struggle, in districts where people are still busy breaking-in land and planting forests, to establish one or two tiny museums (Ps at Kaitaia) to preserve and honour the past. An awareness of this rapid loss of accurate, detailed history and reminiscences, most likely accounts for the recent spate of writings and their historical and biographical nature. Certainly Mr Mitcalfe will remember, not only his formative years in Whangaroa, but also his struggles, along with those of other members of the Kaitaia College staff, to collect and store material used

in Social Studies programmes during the sixties.

Perhaps, too, the memory of the Northwood photos in a prize-winning history of the Mangonui County, written by pupils for a New Zealand Centennial competition, and used as teacher resource material, inspired him to put his interesting collection of photographs together.

Many of the most striking photographs are from the Northwood collection now housed in the Kaitaia Museum which Mr Mitcalfe pushed to have established. We are fortunate to have such records of the daily life and work of ordinary people. It is also fortunate that people like Mr Mitcalfe make them available for all to study and enjoy.

The North starts where this country’s history starts with the Maori and the timeless mythology which gives meaning to the land. The reader is taken along the “Spirits’ Road” to Rerenga Wairua or Cape Reinga. There is a freshness of style and information in this account.

In this, and in the following chapter, there is emphasis on the Maori relationship with the land e.g. places associated with the landfalls of some (to the European) less well-known canoes of the Far North Mamari, Riukakara, Tinana etc. These few arrivals are shown on the one and only map included in the text. But even in these well written chapters there are slight inaccuracies. Surville Cliffs, near North Cape, and not Cape Reinga, are “the last jagged extremity of the island”. “Reverend” William Gilbert Puckey declined ordination. People remember the Aupouri elder, Joe Conrad, not as Hohepa Kanara but as a Conrad, as proud of his German ancestry as of his Maoriness. This attitude is typical among the many “Maori” people of mixed parentage or ancestry in this part of New Zealand, be they Maori/Polish, Dalmatian or Scots etc.

The Northwood cover photograph (undated) of ‘‘a young Maori woman with a gum spear... in the swamps below Pukepoto, Kaitaia” indicates the author’s emphasis and approach. The text is slanted towards the minority groups whose contributions, social, cultural and economic, have been too often overlooked. (Maori, “Dalmatian” gumdiggers (only a caption mentions that some were from Croatia), Scot, Bohemian and women all receive attention.

The photographs and paintings, showing a century from 1820 s through into the 19305, are the attractive feature of this book. They are many and informative, and as the author states they, and the text, ‘‘are aimed at the spirit as well as the simple actuality of life in the North”. The cover captures this spirit. It immediately attracted pupils in a large Northland school to look further. And they enjoyed pouring

over other photographs of people and places they knew something about and could relate to.

The first impressive black and white photos of natural land and sea scapes by Drummond, bring the Aupouri Far North alive. These are followed by colourful paintings of settlements in the Bay of Islands, and one of the Hokianga in the 1820s-30s. They, together with the text of the first four chapters, do capture something of the spirit of the early Maori and European contact with the land and with each other. Later there is an excellent chapter on “The Kauri: Forestry or Industry”, packed with interesting information well illustrated. There are some fascinating studies of gum digging and a telling contrast in two photographs of Tamati Waka Nene on facing pages, one of the pre-European chief, the other of “the astute diplomat” wearing a suit.

There is, on the whole, a nice arrangement and balance of photograph and text. But after 113 pages The North ends with a hotch-potch of twenty-six photographs and captions attempting to cover some of the important settlements and personalities not dealt with in the text e.g. Whangarei, Dargaville, Colonel Allen Bell. After “a leisurely drift” the book ends with the reader or rather, the viewer, performing mental jet flights and time machine trips to cover historical and geographic distance.

“The North” for Northlanders always includes Whangarei and the Kaipara areas and is usually considered to include Warkworth and Helensville the region Mr Mitcalfe attempts to cover. The Far North, on the other hand, is generally that area including and beyond the Maungataniwha Range i.e. the Aupouri Peninsula, the Mangonui County. In his Historic Trails of the Far North E V Sale includes the marginal areas of the Bay of Islands and the Hokianga. By so restricting himself he has been able to give equal attention to each of the six districts he breaks this area into. If Mr Mitcalfe had limited coverage by his book to the Far North, he would have been able to share with the reader more of the fascinating detailed knowledge he has of this area and its peoples.

As Barry Mitcalfe writes in his introduction, the approach in his book is a personal one ... a leisurely drift through the quiet back roads and waterways of the old North, where the past never really died, it simply faded not quite away. When he finally makes his trip to the North, Mr Mitcalfe might be surprised at some of the adaptations and innovations, and the changes in thinking he finds in a region which was shaken by the Moerewa riots and lives with the Waitangi protests.

“In all of this I have drawn chiefly on my own knowledge and experience, the spirit of the environment in which I was reared and the narratives of my people, pakeha and Maori, for the Ngati Maniapoto and Waikato and their kindred are as much my own folk from my earliest years as any of my pakeha blood.’’

In the author’s own words he set out to write the popular tales of the Maori people and if at times his quaint way of protraying Maori ‘savages’ interferes with the narrative, the vivid content more than compensates. Cowan (1870-1943) was one person at the turn of the century interested in chronicling stories and tales he picked up around New Zealand. A professional journalist he was able to get first-hand accounts of legacies of the Land Wars, and the people, both Maori and pakeha, who found they now had to live side by side.

Also in this book are tales of kehua, patupaiarehe and ‘wild men’, and while it’s up to the reader to believe the accounts, the tales have a way of carrying their own history. At times the reader may feel he’s reading a Maori adaptation of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, but that could be partly put down to Cowan’s romantic style of writing with a flourish.

However there’s no doubt that Cowan was at home with the Maori in his tales and although a little patronising, he doesn’t spare the hero worship of say a Ngati Tuwharetoa woman, Hurihia who warned her people of a Waikato invasion.

And then there’s the cunning of a tohunga-a-moko of the Ngati Tu who plied his work so thoroughly with a visiting tribe that the warriors’ tattoing was too painful for them to defend their own pa.

It’s the painting of this broad canvas of Maori life in heroic style that appealed most to me but I could see how some people might be put off.

Best of all most of the tales are short and sharp and leap all about the country in location although familiar figures like the half-caste trader pop up here and there.

More than anything else, Cowan’s Tales of the Maori’ captures a time in our history when might was right and survival was everything. Cowan’s book captures the words of veterans from both sides of the Land Wars and the words of the elders of a society that was rapidly changing. There’s a sense of history throughout the individual tales but always a warmth that comes from a good story-teller such as Cowan.

Run Ue Run, Dark Way Home, Tama Werata. Hillary College Production Centre, Otara.

Tama Werata and Hillary College, Otara have done themselves proud with two short stories written and published on a do-it-yourself basis. Run Ue Run and Dark Way Home are aimed at adolescents, and coming from the melting-pot of Otara, are sharp and glowing reminders of another side of life.

Dark Way Home uses earthy language to tell of two boys trying their hand at living on the streets. Josh and Jockey could be anyone’s kids, getting their kicks by having on authority, be it the cops or parents. If your idea of street kids comes from what you’ve seen on television, you’ll learn a great deal. Although this is no primer for street gang recruits, it’s easy after reading this to see what attracts kids onto the streets.

Dark Way Home takes the reader under the wing and in a disarming way shows the appeal of ‘sleeping out’ and ‘five finger discount’. It doesn’t celebrate the phenomenon of street kids or glorify the life-style but it does allow adults a picture-window view, for those willing to get down on hands and knees and take a look inside.

Indeed Tama Werata might be surprised by readers taking more from his work than was intended, but it’s hard to take in Dark Way Home without considering the reality of our kids on the street. That’s what makes Dark Way Home so powerful.

In contrast Werata’s other book is set at the other end of the time-scale. Run Ue Run, is a historical work set in the 1300’s in Aotearoa, with a Maori youth as the central character. He grapples with the terrors of his time, tribal warfare, a taniwha and growing up in the midst of this turmoil.

Once again the tale is very real despite the timegap. The sense of aroha and feel for the land as a living entity

comes through strongly. Ue may be just a boy but his ancesters are very real to him and he calls on them often to sustain him in his trials.

For readers who like adventure stories with a historical slant, I would recommend this story. Run Ue Run succeeds in bringing familiar historical themes like whanaungatanga to life, a great accomplishment in giving the work a sense of past and present.

Illustrations show carvings and weapons of the time in which the story is set and a glossary explains the Maori words. A short history of Aotearoa is also included to complement the fictional nature of the tale.

Both Run Ue Run and Dark Way Home come in soft-bound form and are printed at Hillary College.

Tama Werata is an adult writer interested to enter the minds of adolescents and to write material to encourage them to want to read. Both Dark Way Home and Run Ue Run are designed to fit into any programme to foster reading or to appeal to the interest of the individual reader of any age. They are particulary written to be read aloud and with vigour to catch the oral language style. The school publishers are interested to receive readers response.

Reremoana Hakiwai, Ruth Flashoff, The Reremoana Hakiwai Educational Trust Fund.

The book follows the life an an incredible Maori woman, Nanny Hakiwai, from her birth in Manutuke, south of Gisborne, home of her Rongowhakaata tribe to her final resting place at her home Marae Omahu (Fernhill) Hastings.

It covers the transition from country life to an urban one, through her schooling, marriage and contact with many people among whom special reference is made to Te Kooti, one of the wellknown figures in New Zealand history. There are many reminiscences and her own personal opinions about the problems, (and solutions) facing today’s Maori people, especially Maori youth. Nanny Hakiwai was loved and cherished by many, and they considered it an honour to be numbered amongst her friends.

This book will appeal to many people, to her family and many friends as it will serve as a visual reminder of their Nanny Hakiwai. It will be of particular interest to many people Maori and European from East Cape to Waipawa and of course to all Maoridom.

About the author.

Ruth Flashoff has been writing since 1928 when she studied under the late Alan Mulgan at Auckland University. A record of her writing is to be found in the International Writers Who’s Who

1976. She is a member of the N.Z’s writers, the Federation of University Women, the Te Awapuni Womens Institute, has been principal of Hukarere Maori Girl’s School also Principal of Chilton St James, Lower Hutt and has taught at St Joseph’s Maori Girls College. The Reremoana Hakiwai Educational Trust Fund. The author relinquishes all claims on profits and such money will be invested in the Trust Account. Interest generated by this fund will provide the source for annual educational grants to any suitable Maori applicants. The Fund and Trust will be admistrated by three trustees, David Flashoff, son of the author businessman; David Moxon, Anglican Priest and David Yates Medical Practitioner, also a member of the Rongowhakaata Tribe.

Maori Religion and Mythology, Elsdon Best, Government Printer.

After being neglected for almost half a century, a classic work by one of New Zealand’s most celebrated and controversial pioneer writers on Maoridom has been published. The long promised second study of “Maori Religion and Mythology” is the last to complete the reprint series of Elsdon Best’s Dominion Museum Bulletins undertaken by the Government Printer. The 682-page book is a detailed account of the creation of the universe, the origin of man, religious beliefs and

rites, magic and folklore of the Maori. Other major studies in Best’s Dominion Museum Bulletin series were on Maori stone implements, storehouses, the pa, canoes, games and pastimes, agriculture, religion and mythology (part One), fishing methods, Maori traditions surrounding conception, birth and baptism and the “Forest Lore of the Maori”. The history of Best’s study on “Maori Religion and Mythology” is a checkered one. The Turnball Library housed the 800-page manuscript of the unpublished Bulletin 11 for some 50 years after Best’s death in 1931. An attempt to publish the text on the eve of 1940 to commemorate the centennial year of Pakeha New Zealand failed with the onset of the Second World War. A further attempt came closer to publication in 1942. But the intervening war years saw the text, together with a series of carefully edited galley proofs of the first score or so pages, remain an unfinished legacy. National Museum director, Dr John Yaldwyn, who wrote the foreword, explains that by the early 19705, most of Best’s classic studies were long out of print. They quickly became “collector’s items” fetching high prices on the second hand market and book auctions which put them well out of the reach of the average New Zealander. Disturbed by this trend, Dr Yaldwyn seized the opportunity in 1972 to present his case to the Government Printer who agreed to reprint the series without revision and retaining their Dominion Museum Bulletin numbers, but resetting the texts in a uniform format.

The decision to reprint without substantial revision was not taken lightly. Dr Yaldwyn admits that Best’s views “are very dated and some of them very wrong. “But the greatest value of the texts is that they represent what Best thought, from what he had been told and from what he had gathered. “Those were his views and all the other writings of Best’s are based on this body of knowledge. This knowledge is being made readily available again to help people making similar studies to realise that this was the state of knowledge of Maori folklore and religion at the time.” Controversy surrounds much of Best’s series of papers on Maori life and customs. Modern Maori enthnologists say that although Best was a methodical recorder, he was often reluctant to a fault to assess or criticise doubtful material from which he quoted extensively in later studies ‘au fait’. Other critics suggest that Best’s views were too “westernised”.

Best, the first white man to live with the Tuhoe tribe in the rugged Urewera Country, gained the confidence of the elders and achieved a degree of rapport seldom equalled by a later generation of ethnologists. Historian Sir Peter Buck said; “He saw things with their eyes and felt with their feelings,” Here, Best second from left, records a part of the Maori heritage with the aid of a gramophone.