"What I Learned About Māori Culture in New Zealand"

This is Jeremy's second blog post, another homeschool assignment, this time about the Māori. This is based primarily on our recent visit to the North Island, where the Māori settled more densely than in the south, due in part to the warmer climate there (North=warmer in the Southern Hemisphere).

Waka (boat) carving at the Aukland War Memorial Museum

Over the last two weeks, we have learned about the indigenous people of New Zealand, or Aotearoa in Te reo Māori, from the extensive collection of art and artifacts at the Aukland Museum, a cultural education experience at the Tamaki Maori Village,  at Te Puia in Rotorua, as well as extensive Māori interpretative signage at most of the sites we visited on the North Island and northern sites of the South Island. A lot, but only the tip of the iceberg.

Tamaki performer, in Rotorua

Just like in the U.S., Europeans did their best to systematically erase the culture of the indigenous people when they achieved control of the land. Children were beaten in schools for speaking their native tongue, as one classic and horrible example. Fortunately, attitudes and policies have changed, although one cannot erase scars from early mistreatment, and certainly racism persists.  One sign of progress is that signage nearly universally has both English and Te reo Māori (recognized an official language of New Zealand in 1987), and in some places (such as in the museum) it is before/above English. 

Exhibit in Aukland Museum: a doll and temporary tattoos from Disney movie. Interpretation is in Te reo Maori first, then English, and reads: "The Makers of the Moana movie consulted Pacific tatau artists when giving the Maui character is tatau. But do they lose their meaning if anyone can buy Maui's tattoos and temporarily apply them to their own body?"

It is difficult to say anything about "the Māori" as a group, given that there are dozens of tribes, each with distinct cultural practices and traditions. It is my understanding that the Māori share language and many legends, which Jeremy discusses. 

A carving in a whare whakairo (carved meeting house) in the Aukland Museum

Also, they are commonly referred to as "warriors;" it was explained to us by our Māori guide that they mercilessly fought "over land and women." We were also told that while there were some tribes that had female warriors, others have rules still barring women from taking leadership roles or even speaking at certain important events. 

I have been struck by the maleness of the culture as reflected in the art: erect penises are a common theme, but I've seen almost nothing I recognize as relating to the female experience- no birth images, no babies, no breasts. This doesn't mean these things weren't important, only that they don't seem to be in representative art. While human figures are common, I have only seen two that were recognizably female (at a visitor center), and interestingly both included phallic symbolism.  

Our feminist son was bothered by what he perceived to be a lack of equality of the sexes. In particular, he became upset when our Māori guide at the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute told us that women were not admitted for carving. 

A beautiful dress made by a woman, out of flax, at the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute. Women are only admitted to do fiber arts at the Institute, in accordance with their tradition. 

Men can do any activity they liked, but women are barred from any type of carving, which appeared to be the greatest part of the school. Jeremy originally wrote about it in his essay. He also wanted Fran to be the "chief" of our group at Tamaki (each bus/waka needed to assign one to be admitted), but women weren't permitted to be chief.

Jeremy observing a carver at the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute

A box carved in the traditional style, at the Institute

This spurred conversations in the family about sexism but also about the dangers of passing judgement on another group. We have had conversations about racism and colonialism. We talked about power and history and the limits of our understanding of another culture. As a result, Jeremy asked that I not include the part of his essay on his perception of sexism in Māori culture in this blog post.

Here is the rest.

"What I Learned About Māori Culture in New Zealand" 
by Jeremy Simon, age 10

The Māori are and were the native people of New Zealand. They have many different customs, some disturbing and some sensible. They also had many different stories about how things came to be.

First let's talk about the disturbing things to get it over with. One of the more disturbing things is that the Māori were cannibals. And if you want to know what a cannibal is, then go look it up, because I don't want to tell you. You’ve probably seen a picture of a Māori man sticking his tongue out at you. This is an indicator that they were cannibals; whenever they stick their tongue out at you, it is a aggressive motion suggesting, “I am hungry and I will eat you.”  It is often done in war dances called Hakas. 

The Tamaki bringing baskets of food out of the cooking pits

         One of the cooler things that the Māori do is that in areas like Rotorua, one of the ways that they cook their food is with volcanoes. The way they do this is by digging a big hole in the ground, putting volcanic rocks in the bottom, and then putting in their food on large trays.

A feast, prepared in earth ovens 

           Some of the other cool things that the Māori have are spiffy stick games and toys such as the poi. The poi is a rock or something such as a sponge (in modern days) attached to a string, with a knot or a tassel at the end of the string. You use a poi by swinging it around you in circular motions while looking really cool.

The Māori have many stories about how things came to be. For example, there was a story about the South Island of New Zealand. The Earth Mother and the Sky Father had kids. 

A Maori wood carving in the Otago Museum

Those kids were sailing in their canoe to visit the Earth Mother when a terrible storm struck. Their canoe flipped over, leaving them up on top of the canoe (trying to stay dry). The rain from the storm was magical, and so it turned them all to stone on top of their canoe. That stone is now the South Island. The sons are now the highest mountains of the South Island. 

Aoraki/Mt. Cook - the oldest son

Another story I have heard about is a story about how some rock got to the shape that it did. The story is that there was a giant, evil lizard. The lizard kept on coming back to terrorize a town. It came back every single year and killed one maiden. But one year, the maiden knew that the lizard was going to come for her. So she took up arms and killed the lizard.  She scattered his scales everywhere with a single blow, turning them to stone. The rock formations they say are the lizard’s stone scales.

The scales of Te Ngārara Huarau

In conclusion, the Māori are a very interesting people with many different customs and traditions. They also had many interesting beliefs and stories.