NGA TAPUWAE HOSTS FESTIVAL

Tu Tangata, Issue 30, 1 July 1986, Page 56

NGA TAPUWAE HOSTS FESTIVAL

The eleventh Maori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival was held at Nga Tapuwae College in April this year. A gathering of Auckland secondary schools’ cultural groups, it stretched over two days and attracted over ten thousand people.

Photos by Gil Hanley

□ WHAKAIRO David Simmons

A well known whakatauki Pakeha is: the obvious can escape us - including the meaning of the proverb. For, unlike most whakatauki, it is particularly complex in interpretation as it has its source (pu) in the subconscious one of the primary, controversial areas of psychiatry.

Simply stated, the subconscious dictates human action, impulses both intellectual and emotional. Then there is associated motivation: the question why? Why did he or she kill, steal, kick the cat? Why do kids take off, refuse to listen to parent? Why do 1... Motive is the answer. We all have our reasons, motives for everything we do. More often than not however, the motives lie deep in the subconscious mind. The true motive for action is hidden, and in its place we put forward apparent rather than real motives: I kicked the cat because it’s in the way all the time - not because I dislike cats! This apparent answer is plausible, but untrue: subconsciously the cat is disliked. Ngeru would be advised to leave home; the violence is liable to escalate!

Now, in addition to individual subconscious motivation, there is collective subconscious motivation which applies to whole communities, ethnic groups. Naturally in multi-racial societies, the collective subconscious and its motivations must be clearly understood. For without understanding, social and cultural crises arise. An error in interpretation of motive can escalate into serious confrontation; as occurred over the cover of David Simmons’, 1985 book Whakairo: Maori Tribal Art.

In the controversy over the book cover, both the individual and the collective subconscious were activated. But for obvious reasons, only the collective subconscious and its motives will be dealt with.

First then, the cover itself. This features a photograph of the central, stylised figure of the Kaitaia roof carving, dating to about AD 1400 or even earlier.

Recovered from Lake Tangonge, the carving is the highly prized ancestral taonga of Tai Tokerau; a carving of mana, tapu, ihi.

In the photograph, the Kaitaia figure is shown from the rear. And it is this that aroused the controversy among Maori of Tai Tokerau and other tribal area. The photograph was regarded as objectionable to Maori cultural sensitivities, even a deliberate insult by Simmons/Oxford University Press; the insult being likened to the insulting backside-exposure of contempt expressed in the haka pirori. So incensed was Ngapuhi, that a delegation of women threatened to confront Simmons at the Auckland Museum over the cover, and other issues relating to the book.

Neither Simmons nor the publishers of Whakairo have responded to the reaction of Maori to the book cover. However, the collective subconscious of Tai Tokerau and its inner motivation has, at least in part, surfaced and is open to reasonable interpretation: a state of crisis has arisen over certain Europeans recording aspects of Maori culture without appealing to known Maori experts; without sensitivity, understanding and, often, without real knowledge. This is the true or real subconscious motive for the attack. The attack on the cover was the apparent motive.

An understanding of subconscious motivation is vital to survival. For most of us it is normally termed instinct, feeling; instinctively we react to something being done or said that seems to mean something different we have the feeling we are not being told the whole truth. The search for the whole truth in human relations can be very worthwhile. Alan Taylor

□ TAMOKO, THE ART OF MAORI TATTOO

David Simmons Reed Methuen, $24.95

Ta Moko may be just as controversial as David Simmons’ previous book, Whakairo: Maori Tribal Art, which was attacked for comments about the carving history of the Ngapuhi people of the North.

What appeared to be at the centre of the controversy was the source of Simmons’ statements regarding understanding the meaning of carvings. Te Riria, a tohunga of the North was credited in Whakairo as was the Ahupuriri Council.

In Ta Moko this same tohunga is acknowledged as ‘Ko Te Arikinui Taiopuru Ko Te Riria V of Kohuiarau’, and he is credited as providing much of the knowledge.

Nevertheless at the time of reviewing Ta Moko, the same storm had not burst, so perhaps a more relaxed reading may result.

Simmons, along with Te Riria, covers a history of maori tattoo amply illustrated with black and white and colour plates of excellent quality. The commentaries on identified individuals are really interesting, considering some of the people are being identified by their moko alone. This is because a lot of the sketches and illustrations of Maori with moko, had inadequate identification like, ‘Portrait of a New Zealand Man’, or pencil sketch by Sydney Parkinson.

Simmons identifies eight levels of rank in nineteenth century Maori society; the taiopuru, or if female, the tapairu, the ahupiri, the noaia, the konini, the kaitahutahu arikinui, the kaitahutahu ariki, the rangatira and tutua.

He then goes on to say that various levels had their own distinctive moko, but that this national system had only started in 1816 when “the impetus to fully unite the tribes was first promulgated.” Before this time he says elements of the system were present but that the information carried by the moko system was the same all over the country. Simmons’ information will undoubtedly spark much discussion in learning circles but the Maori community is normally noted for its reserve before signalling its opinion. Ma te wa, ka mohio tatou.

□ KO ROIMATA ME TE WAO NUI A TANE

Miriam Smith Illustrations by Suzanne Walker Brick Row Publishing, $9.95

John Hunia has translated this book into maori.

A picture book with a fair amount of text, Roimata makes a colourful splash.

My only gripe is a minor one in that the kuia’s menemene or wrinkles look more like a rubbery mask.

However the story-line is a fine linking of the memories of the old kuia and her mokopuna, Roimata. She tells Roimata of the time before the houses were built when the whole area was the great forest of Tane, te wao nui a Tane. She says her father chopped down one area of this forest so that the house she and Roimata now live in, could be built. He

left the tawa tree that still stands outside, for the birds, the tui, the kereru. After this time more people came and chopped down whole forests and nowhere could the birds find a home.

The kuia recounts how when she was growing up, the tawa tree was already a kaumatua of the forest. Now her boys want her to cut it down because it shades the house but she is adamant it stays. Roimata enjoys the morere or swing under the tawa and dreams of former days of the tree. Disaster comes when lightening dashes the tawa to the ground one night, but in the aftermath when the aged one is cut up and carted away, Roimata finds new life has sprung forth from the old. She discovers a seedling tawa and declares to her nanny that when she’s a kuia, her mokopuna will also have a swing on the new tawa. Kia koe Miriam taku aroha. P.W.

□ PAPA

Piatarihi Yates, author Roger Hart, illustrator

He Purapura, Education Dept

Another delightful small book for children from Te Roopu Mahipukapukakura. Papa extols the virtues of a young girl’s father. He’s a tangata tino pai and tino kaha. A welcome addition is that this papa is equally adept in being tino kaha in the kihini kite mahi kai. Papa will be a forceful reminder that maori language is a language of love and people and devoid of these two essentials, will not survive. Kia piki o koutou kaha, e Te Roopu Mahipukapukakura.

□ POTIKI Patricia Grace Penguin paperback, $15.95 Viking hardback, $24.95

Her new novel takes place in a coastal settlement that is seeking to come to grips with its collective past and a seem ingly individualistic future. Toko, the potiki or the last child, comes to the whanau in unusual circumstances. His appearance is misshapen and his utterances are equally mystifying. However he is sheltered by the whanau and takes his place in a whakapapa already mapped out for him.

Patricia Grace has taken maori tikanga and weaved a narrative skilfully in and around. While the whanau and the wider hapu are set to do battle with land developers, a more subtle battle is raging within the iwi, the battle to retain their identity and perhaps redefine their goals.

Potiki evokes whakapapa and korero o nga tupuna and lends a spiritual dimension to the events which otherwise could be seen by some readers as farfetched or trite.

Dominant culture perspectives is something that Maori people have had to live with and although we may not have had the property or land developers knocking at our door, most Maori would recognise the ‘Dollarman’ who comes to offer the world to the iwi of Potiki.

That he is steadfastly refused may be wishful thinking in real life, as we all seem to have a price. However the iwi of Potiki face the outward and inward desolation that comes when opposite forces meet. How they hold themselves together and build on their whakapapa is the measure of Potiki.

•fa TE OHU WHAKAARI Philip Whaanga

Te Ohu Whakaari recently completed a national tour sponsored by the New Zealand University Students’ Association. I caught them in Wellington, part-way through the tour.

The lineup had changed since last seeing them a couple of years ago. Tina Cook, the only remaining troupe member - newcomers Neil Gudsell (Kai Tahu), Esther Fala (Nga Rauru) and Paul Maxwell (Ngati Rangiwewehi) - all impressed with their freshness. For me their first offering was their finest.

The story: a carver, Rehua carves a figure called Pou back in the pre-pakeha days. He is one with creation possessing the gift of life. However a cataclysmic happening swallows Pou and he reemerges some years later in modern day Aotearoa. He sees pakeha flesh for the first time, Raewyn (Tina Cook) tripping along the road. He attacks her but she escapes. A car is also unsuccessfully assaulted but poor Pou is instead run over. He wonders at this strange landscape and limps his way onto a marae. Here he discovers Rehua carved in the poupou inside the whare tupuna and learns that this is his homeland, but vastly changed. Rehua cautions him not to go outside the marae because of the danger, but Rehua cannot accept this imprisonment. He chooses to climb the poutama pattern weaved in the tukutuku and makes his way to te ao turoa.

Rehua (Paul Maxwell) and Pou (Neil Gudsell) were stunning in their presentation and the lighting and make-up especially made Pou seem like a carved figure.

The insect sketch featuring Paul Maxwell and Esther Fala was a classic laugh a minute. The ingredients of portraying human behaviour from a grassroots view really worked. Sample dialogue on seeing the man urinating, killing frogs for fun and then taking a swim -

“Look rain, I’ll dance in it ... pooh I think it wasn’t rain ... pooh the creature was making toilet, what sort of animal makes toilet on another? “Look it’s killed the frogs but hasn’t eaten its lunch, how strange. And now oohh, it’s getting out of its skin and swimming ... and hey it’s now climbing back into its old skin.”

Paul Maxwell doing a monologue at Hemi’s tangi also stood out. Getting across the confusion and fear of a young Maori, unsure of the ritual of a tangi was not an easy task, but was managed superbly. Kia ora Paora. An old favourite, Patricia Grace’s It used to be green, was entertaining second time round. Ka nui te pukukata Te Ohu Whakaari, ka nui te aroha ki a koutou e whakangahau ana nga tikanga, o o tatou tupuna. Kia ora koutou. P.W.