Oral History and Traces of the Past in a Polynesian Landscape1

Anna-Leena Siikala SPATIAL MEMORY AND NARRATION: ORAL HISTORY AND TRACES OF THE PAST IN A POLYNESIAN LANDSCAPE1 hen Inepo, a 27-year-old fisherman obvious than that they set them primarily in on Mauke wanted to tell the legend of space, only secondarily in time.’ (Glassie 1982: WAkaina, a character important in the history of 662–663). the island, he said: ‘Let’s go to the place where Inepo can be compared to the young Akaina’s body was dried. It is on our land, near Irish men to whom the historical narratives the orange grove.’ The day was hot and we are meaningful accounts of places. in fact, the hesitated, why not just tell the story right here oral historic narratives of most commoners on in the village green. Inepo, however, insisted on Mauke resemble the historical folklore of an showing us the place and told the legend which Irish or another European village in their lack of ended: ‘This place, I know it, I still remember it a precise time perspective. from my childhood (…) they (Akaina and his Inepo’s teacher in the art of historical party) used to stay in Tane’s marae (cult place). narratives, called tua taito ‘old speech’, does, That is also on our land.’2 however, represent a different kind of oral Inepo’s vivid narrative did not focus on historian. He was Papa Aiturau, a tumu korero, the time perspective or historical context. ‘a source of history’, who initiated children Dramatic events were brought from the past to into the past of their own kin group. Inepo’s the present by the place where it all happened, reference to the cult place (marae) and to the even though to an occasional outsider the place land of the kin group reveals the context and may have seemed to be just another spot of goal of transmitting the historical tradition. field and bushes. The narrative gave meaning to the place and the place testified that the GENEALOGIC KNOWLEDGE events really happened on the island. The fact AND NARRATIVES that local history is rooted in material objects, places and landscape, has been widely observed The cosmology of Mauke collected in 1882 (Basso 1984; Connerton 1989; Glassie 1982; by William Wyatt Gill and published in Halbwachs 1992 [1941; 1950], Lowenthal 1990; 1911 under the title ‘Growth of the Land of Tonkin 1995). Henry Glassie describes in Mau’ke’ ends ‘There are six from the po here; his work Passing the time in Ballymenone the and 25 generations of men from ‘Uke down relationship of the younger generation to the to Pare-pora.’ (Gill 1911: 134–135). In Gill’s oral history of an Irish village in the following cosmology, which describes the origin and the way: ‘The few young men who were interested in growth of the land and the appearance of gods history, who sat with the old people and listened and people, there are 26 generations before the with care, learned the complete stories of their ancestors of the Maukeans, Uke and his wife place, and when they tell them, nothing is more Te Puai’angauta, who form the turning point in suomen antropologi | volume 44 issue 3–4 autumn – winter 2019 84 Anna-Leena Siikala the cosmic development (Siikala 1991: 42–62). The korero, the oral history of the kin Life buds out from the dark night, po, and the group, is transmitted to new generations as genealogical line of layers of earth and gods is (a) genealogies and (b) myths and legends transformed into a line of human beings: Uke telling of the deeds of ancestors who form the ‘came to this land and day and became a man.’ genealogy. Researchers of Polynesian folklore in giving the names of the descendants of Uke’s have noted the close connection of genealogies daughter Taramatie-toro and her husband Tura, and narratives dealing with mythic history the Atiuan ancestor chief, the text specifies (Chadwick and Chadwick 1986 [1940]: 242– six generations from the po; altogether there 243; Charlot 1987: 11). Gregory Schrempp are ‘25 generations of men from ‘Uke down formulates the quality of the connection in to Pare-pora’. A mythical genealogy turns the New Zealand Maori tradition in the into a historical one reaching from the divine following way: ‘(…) the genealogical and prose ancestors to the living people. Interestingly, cosmogonies bear the following complementary the exact number of generations is mentioned. relation: they recount the same process, the When discussing the length of historical time, former from the standpoint of demonstrating Maukeans counted that the intermediate time continuity, the latter from the perspective of between the po and the present day consists of recognising and emphasising discontinuity’ 25–30 generations. That is a common length of (Schrempp 1985: 23). Schrempp stresses the the family genealogies which do not contain notion that in the genealogical ordering, discon- the cosmological events but begin from the first tinuity is subordinated to continuity. The prose ancestor after po. form specially marks the phases of separation The masters of genealogical knowledge (wehe) in the genealogy. (Schrempp 1985: 21) are the tumu koreros, specialists in oral history. Because the same main heroes of The tumu korero of Atiu, George Mateariki, mythical history are the dramatis personae of for example, presented the whole series of traditions on many different islands, they are narratives connected to the cosmic genealogy also connected to different sets of genealogies. of Atiu following the order of happenings from As a consequence of the connectedness of the the beginning of the world. As a script for his narratives through genealogy and geography, performance he had his puka papa’anga, a hand the corpus of narratives cannot be defined in the written book which contained lines of names. usual folkloristic way: seeing them as separate Picking out name after name, he entered into narratives, even the individual narratives are the narrative world connected to each of the named by referring to the main hero. heroes, creating during the narration a long saga The tua tai’to corpus of the Southern Cook of adventures. The key to the narrative tradition islands forms a network of narrated episodes. The is the genealogy and the key words are the horizontal dimension of this network is made names of heroes. The best tumu koreros master up of episodes connected to different ngatis the historical continuum of the narrated events (lineages) and islands; the vertical dimension and can produce a shorter or a longer version in turn creates genealogies. (Martha Beckwith of a narrative. The main events in the lives of has suggested that genealogies in the Hawaiian ancestors can also be told in a summarizing, Kumulipo could be read not only vertically but saga type narrative. also horizontally; on genealogy and related suomen antropologi | volume 44 issue 3–4 autumn – winter 2019 85 Anna-Leena Siikala information; Beckwith 1981; see also Shortland THE PERFORMANCE OF TUMU 1974: 94–95; Shore 1982: 81) In performing KORERO a narrative, the tumu korero can follow the vertical line connecting the lives and deeds of Comparative and genealogy-oriented studies different heroes to form a sequence in time, or of Polynesian narratives have disregarded he may follow the deeds of a hero on different the horizontal dimension of the network of islands, weaving the episodes into a large narrative tradition. Not only do the narratives narrative entity. Genealogies act as redactional describe events in the landscape, they are also outlines—to use the term of John Charlot— performed—if possible—in it. Children, for which are needed in producing large tradition example, learn the history of the family group in complexes orally. Charlot studied the Hawaiian its marae, the ritual place. When recording the Kamapua’a literature and stated that ‘the outline Mauke korero in 1977, tumu koreros Papa Aiturau, provided the framework of a complex, referring Tararo Ariki and Tengaru Tobia followed to its individual stories, complexes, or sections the custom in performing and discussing the in their proper places. This outline could be narratives in the places of events, maraes, pools, memorized, and the complex could then be told landing places of canoes etc. Papa Aiturau by expanding some or all the sections as one began his performance at a pool connected to reached them.’ (Charlot 1987: 67.) He found the passage of Oneunga in a typical way (Mauke several forms of ‘redactional outlines’, a typical korero, cass. 3, side A): form being a list. A genealogy forms an unbreakable chain The passage called Oneunga. There are which links everybody to the origin, to the lots of things that have happened on this divine world of the gods and ancestors. Both passage on Taratoa, its road and the close the individual and the whole ethnic group have down of its bathing pool called Vaiou. On a history which define all the important factors this road on Oneunga is a pool, up to this constituting the identity. Because genealogies day, which is called Rua Moraro. We will reveal land ownership, the right to chiefly titles now talk about this man called Rua Moraro. etc., they are constantly discussed, reinterpreted This man had seven wives. We were told and recreated in everyday life. A proper that this man came from the tapere called knowledge of the genealogies and connected Anua because this tapere, Anua, was full of narratives can be used as a valuable weapon in people from Atiu. The people of Atiu were disputes over land rights and titles. Everybody looking for the people from the tribe of should learn his own genealogy and the events Ngati-Kau who ran into the cave called which established the prevailing order.

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