Māori mythology

Māori mythology and Māori traditions are the two major categories into which the legends of the Māori of New Zealand may usefully be divided. The rituals, beliefs, and the world view of Māori society were ultimately based on an elaborate mythology that had been inherited from a Polynesian homeland and adapted and developed in the new setting (Biggs 1966:448).
==Myths==
=== Creation ===
In the beginning their was Te Kore, the nothingness. Out of this great nothingness came Te Pō. The last night joined with Space and there came into being two thoughts. These thoughts were called Rangi, the Sky Farther, and Papa, the Earth Mother. They were so much in love they held eachother tightly and refused to let go of eachother. Thus the sky and the earth where joined solidly together. One of their children Tāne forced them far apart, the sky farther above and the earth mother below.
==== North island ====
Māui and his brothers, fishermen, paddled far out to sea to they great fishing grounds. And so the paddled far out to sea, so far that all sight of land was lost. Māui seeing a great big fish pulled out his fish hook, made from the jaw-bone of his grandmother. Māui casted his line, which soon got pulled on, signaling him to bring it in. But by mistake Māui pulled up the land of the North Island of New Zealand.
===Rarohenga===
Rarohenga refers to the subterranean realm where spirits of the deceased dwell after death. The underworld is ruled by the Goddess of Death and Night, Hine-nui-te-pō. Rarohenga is predominantly depicted as a place of peace and light. As articulated by Māori ethnographer, Elsden Best: It is a place where darkness is unknown, as darkness “pertains only to the upper world”. The origin of Rarohenga, like many other Māori rituals and beliefs, is derivative of Polynesian mythology. According to such mythology, Hawaiki represents the origin of all Polynesian people and where they return after death. Variations, such as Rarohenga, came to be after this traditional mythology dispersed across the numerous islands of the central and southern Pacific Ocean, whereupon it was adapted and redeveloped into new settings.
==19th century sources==
===Missionaries===
Little of the extensive body of Māori mythology and tradition was recorded in the early years of European contact. The missionaries had the best opportunity to get the information, but failed to do so at first, in part because their knowledge of the language was imperfect. Most of the missionaries who did master the language were unsympathetic to Māori beliefs, regarding them as 'puerile beliefs', or even 'works of the devil'. Exceptions to this general rule were J. F. Wohlers of the South Island,Wohler's work is presented in Christine Tremewan's Traditional Stories from Southern New Zealand: He Kōrero nō Te Wai Pounamu, 2002. Richard Taylor, who worked in the Taranaki and Wanganui River areas, and William Colenso who lived at the Bay of Islands and also in Hawke's Bay. "The writings of these men are among our best sources for the legends of the areas in which they worked" (Biggs 1966:447).
===Non-missionary collectors===
In the 1840s Edward Shortland, Sir George Grey, and other non-missionaries began to collect the myths and traditions. At that time many Māori were literate in their own language and the material collected was, in general, written by Māori themselves in the same style as they spoke. The new medium seems to have had minimal effect on the style and content of the stories. Genealogies, songs, and narratives were written out in full, just as if they were being recited or sung. Many of these early manuscripts have been published, and today the scholar has access to a great body of material (more than for any other area of the Pacific) containing multiple versions of the great myth cycles known in the rest of Polynesia, as well as of the local traditions pertaining only to New Zealand. A great deal of the best material is found in two books, Nga Mahi a nga Tupuna (The Deeds of the Ancestors), collected by Sir George Grey and translated as Polynesian Mythology; and Ancient History of the Māori (six volumes), edited by John White (Biggs 1966:447).Later scholars, however, have been critical of the editing methods used by these collectors, especially Grey.
==Forms of the legends==
The three forms of expression prominent in Māori and Polynesian oral literature are genealogical recital, poetry, and narrative prose.
===Genealogical recital===
The reciting of genealogies (whakapapa) was particularly well developed in Māori oral literature, where it served several functions in the recounting of tradition. Firstly it served to provide a kind of time scale which unified all Māori myth, tradition, and history, from the distant past to the present. It linked living people to the gods and the legendary heroes. By quoting appropriate genealogical lines, a narrator emphasised his or her connection with the characters whose deeds were being described, and that connection also proved that the narrator had the right to speak of them. "In the cosmogonic genealogies, to be described later, genealogical recital is revealed as a true literary form. What appears at first sight to be a mere listing of names is in fact a cryptic account of the evolution of the universe"' (Biggs 1966:447).
===Poetry===
Māori poetry was always sung or chanted; musical rhythms rather than linguistic devices served to distinguish it from prose. Rhyme or assonance were not devices used by the Māori; only when a given text is sung or chanted will the metre become apparent. The lines are indicated by features of the music. The language of poetry tends to differ stylistically from prose. Typical features of poetic diction are the use of synonyms or contrastive opposites, and the repetition of key words. "Archaic words are common, including many which have lost any specific meaning and acquired a religious mystique. Abbreviated, sometimes cryptic utterances and the use of certain grammatical constructions not found in prose are also common" (Biggs 1966:447-448).
===Prose narrative===
Prose narrative forms the great bulk of Māori legendary material. Some appears to have been sacred or esoteric, but many of the legends were well-known stories told as entertainment in the long nights of winter. "Nevertheless, they should not be regarded simply as fairy tales to be enjoyed only as stories. The Maui myth, for example, was important not only as entertainment but also because it embodied the beliefs of the people concerning such things as the origin of fire, of death, and of the land in which they lived. The ritual chants concerning firemaking, fishing, death, and so on made reference to Māui and derived their power from such reference" (Biggs 1966:448).
==Traditions==
"Every Māori social group had its own body of traditional belief which validated its claims to the territory it occupied, gave authority to those of high rank, and justified the group's external relationships with other groups. These purposes were served because the members of the groups concerned believed that the traditions were true records of past events, and they acted accordingly. Alliances between groups were facilitated if it was believed that they shared a common heritage, and the commoner's respect for and fear of his chief were based, in part at least, on his belief in the semi-divine ancestry of those of high rank" (Biggs 1966:450).
"Traditions, as opposed to myths, tell of incidents which are for the most part humanly possible. Genealogical links with the present place them within the past millennium. They are geographically located in New Zealand and knowledge of them is confined to this country" (Biggs 1966:448).
===Corpus of Māori tradition===
According to Biggs (1966:451), tradition may be divided into three types:
==== Discovery or origin traditions====
There were two major discovery or origin traditions. One of these traditions names Kupe as the discoverer of New Zealand. The second group of traditions regards Toi as the first important origin ancestor. "Both traditions were current over wide but apparently complementary areas of the North Island. Attempts to place the two in a single chronological sequence are misguided, since there is no reliable evidence that they ever formed part of the same body of traditional lore" (Biggs 1966:451).
*According to the tribes of North Auckland and the west coast of the North Island, Kupe sailed to New Zealand from Hawaiki, after murdering a man called Hoturapa, and making off with his wife, Kuramarotini. Traditional songs recount Kupe's travels along the coast of New Zealand. Kupe sailed back to Hawaiki and never came back to the land he discovered. However, others came to New Zealand according to his directions (Biggs 1966:451).
*Toi (Toi-kai-rākau, or Toi-the-wood-eater) is the traditional origin ancestor of the tribes of the East Coast of the North Island. Their traditions make no mention of his coming to New Zealand, and the inference is that he was born there. The Tūhoe tribe of the inland Bay of Plenty, say that Toi's 'ancestor' Tiwakawaka was the first to settle the country, "but only his name is remembered" (Biggs 1966:451). Tiwakawaka is actually the name of a bird, the fantail.
====Migration and settlement traditions====
*Migration traditions are numerous, and pertain to small areas and to small groups of tribes. "Certain tribes appear to have emphasised their canoe migration tradition and descent from crew members more than the others. In particular, the Hauraki, Waikato, and King Country tribes (Tainui canoe) and the Rotorua and Taupo tribes (Te Arawa canoe) appear to have placed special emphasis on their descent from a particular canoe migration" (Biggs 1966:451).
====Local traditions====
Each tribal group, whether tribe or subtribe, maintained its discrete traditional record, which generally concerned "great battles and great men"; these stories were linked together by genealogy, which in Māori tradition is an elaborate art. "In some cases the story is continuous and internally consistent from the migration down to the present. In other cases it is fragmentary and discontinuous earlier than about 1600" (Biggs 1966:453).
==Notes==
==References==
*E. Best, Tuhoe, the Children of the Mist, fourth edition. 2 Volumes. First published 1925. (Reed: Auckland), 1996.
*B.G. Biggs, 'Maori Myths and Traditions' in A.H. McLintock (editor), Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 3 Volumes. (Government Printer: Wellington), 1966, II:447-454.
*G. Grey, Polynesian Mythology, Illustrated edition, reprinted 1976. (Whitcombe and Tombs: Christchurch), 1956.
*G. Grey, Nga Mahi a Nga Tupuna, fourth edition. First published 1854. (Reed: Wellington), 1971.
*T. R. Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck), The Coming of the Maori. Second Edition. First Published 1949. Wellington: Whitcombe and Tombs) 1974.
*C. Tremewan, Traditional Stories from Southern New Zealand: He Kōrero nō Te Wai Pounamu (Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies: Christchurch), 2002.
*J. White, The Ancient History of the Maori, 6 Volumes (Government Printer: Wellington), 1887-1891.
==External links==
*First peoples in Māori tradition in Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
*Māori creation traditions in Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Category:Māori mythology
Category:Māori religion
Category:Polynesian mythology
Category:Creation myths