Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
geon or a dog or an eel if it suited his purposes. He stole fire from the gods. Using
his grandmother's jawbone, he bashed the sun so that it could only limp slowly
across the sky, so that people would have enough time during the day to get things
done (if only he would do it again!). Using the South Island as a canoe, he used the
jawbone as a hook to fish up Te Ika a Maui (the fish of Maui) - the North Island.
And, finally, he met his end trying to defeat death itself. The goddess of death,
Hine-nui-te-po, had obsidian teeth in her vagina (obsidian is a volcanic glass that
takes a razor edge when chipped). Maui attempted to reverse birth (and hence de-
feat death) by crawling into her birth canal to reach her heart as she slept. A small
bird - a fantail - laughed at the absurd sight. Hine-nui-te-po awoke, and crushed
Maui between her thighs. Death one, humanity nil.
What would it have been like making the transition from small tropical islands to a
much larger, cooler land mass? Goodbye breadfruit, coconuts, paper mulberry; hello
moa, fernroot, flax - and immense space (relatively speaking). NZ has over 15,000km of
coastline. Rarotonga, by way of contrast, has a little over 30km. There was land, lots of
it, and a flora and fauna that had developed more or less separately from the rest of the
world for 80 million years. There was an untouched, massive fishery. There were great
seaside mammalian convenience stores - seals and sea lions - as well as a fabulous array
of birds.
The early settlers went on the move, pulled by love, by trade opportunities and greater
resources; pushed by disputes and threats to security. When they settled, Maori estab-
lished
mana whenua
(regional authority), whether by military campaigns, or by the
peaceful methods of intermarriage and diplomacy. Looking over tribal history it's pos-
sible to see the many alliances, absorptions and extinctions that went on.
Histories were carried by the voice, in stories, songs and chants. Great stress was
placed on accurate learning - after all, in an oral culture where people are the libraries,
the past is always a generation or two away from oblivion.
Maori lived in
kainga
(small villages) which often had associated gardens. Housing
was quite cosy by modern standards - often it was hard to stand upright while inside.
From time to time people would leave their home base and go to harvest seasonal foods.
When peaceful life was interrupted by conflict, the people would withdraw to
pa
(forti-
fied dwelling places).
And then Europeans began to arrive.
