Print Culture and the Collective Mori Consciousness
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Journal of New Zealand Literature Print Culture and the Collective Māori Consciousness Author(s): Lachy Paterson Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of New Zealand Literature: JNZL, No. 28, Part 2: Special Issue: Cultures of Print in Colonial New Zealand (2010), pp. 105-129 Published by: Journal of New Zealand Literature and hosted by the University of Waikato Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41245590 . Accessed: 29/01/2012 16:32 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Journal of New Zealand Literature and University of Waikato are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of New Zealand Literature: JNZL. http://www.jstor.org PrintCulture and the Collective Maori Consciousness Lachy Paterson Before Europeans arrived in Aotearoa, Maori did not comprehendof humanityexcept as beings physicallyand culturallythe same as themselves.The word "maori"means normal,and tangatamaori, "maori" people, meant normal humanbeings who shareda languageand culturein common. The mostimportant divisions within Maori society were tribal, based on genealogicallinks.1 The advent of Europeans complicatedthe Maori world-view that had to accommodatethe concept of differentpeoples with differentlanguages and cultures.2Maori maywell, on firstsight, have consideredthe strangevisitors of the late eighteenthcentury the pale-skinned supernatural being they called "Pakehakeha".3 This supernaturality,although not thedifferences, soon slippedaway from Pakeha, althoughthe term persistedfor people of European descent.However, while the physicaland cultural characteristicswere sufficientlyapparent for Maori to see themselvesas culturallyor raciallydifferent to Pakeha,they did not initially"imagine" themselves as a nationor people, but rathercontinued to tie identityto tribalgroupings.4 The developmentof a Maori"national" or collectiveconsciousness, alwayspartial and mitigatedby tribal identities, was a responseto Pakehasettlement and colonialismin New Zealandand, as with emergingnationalisms in othersocieties, this was shapedby print culture,in particularnewspapers. 105 Journalof New Zealand Literature This essayseeks to explicatethe role of printculture in the growthof Maoriidentity in thenineteenth century. The impact of printon societyhas long been acknowledged,and indeed anticipatedby theearly Pakeha purveyors of printedmaterial to Maori.5Scholars globally have also recognizedthe transformative powerof print.6However, within New Zealand,academics have been less comfortablein imaginingMaori as a "nation",and when Maori "nationalism"is acknowledged,have shied away fromtheorizing on its natureand origins.7Within the Maori worldloyalties and self-identificationstill lean heavilytowards whanau,hapu and iwi, perhaps more so in thepresent due to the effectof theWaitangi Tribunal. It is outside,in the pragmatic strugglewith the challenges of thePakeha world, that a "Maori" self-identityhas morerelevance. As JohnRangihau stated, 'My beingMaori is absolutelydependent on myhistory as a Tuhoe personas againstbeing a Maori person'.8However, both the natureof colonialismand Maoriaspirations possess a dynamism that affecttheir relationship with each other,and thus the ongoingforms of Maori self-identification. BenedictAnderson, in ImaginedCommunities: Reflections on the Originand Spread of Nationalism, explicitly linked print, coupled withcapitalism, as instrumentalin the formationof formsof "nationalconsciousness",9 and this essay utilizes relevant parts of histhesis as pointsof comparisonin consideringthe relationship in nineteenth-centuryMaori society.Although there has been some critiqueof his concepts and model, Andersonmay neverthelesshave provideda 'systematiccomparative approach [that]has madea contributionto ourunderstanding that is quite independentof thevalidity of its specificconclusions'.10 Indeed his workhas provedinfluential, with scholars still prepared to engagewith his ideas.11This essaydoes not seek to slavishly compareMaori society to all thevarious theoretical components of Anderson'smodel but to investigatethe natureof Maori collectiveidentity using several core elementsof his thesis:first thatnationalism developed as the importanceof religionand 106 PrintCulture and theCollective monarchydecreased;12 second that the adventof capitalism,in particularone of its firstmanifestations, printing, facilitated the developmentof nationalidentities.13 Capitalism increasingly requiredwider levels of literacyand education.14Printing was eventuallyundertaken in vernacularlanguages, particularly after the Reformation,creating 'monoglot mass readingpublics', reading,and increasingly speaking, the same language.15 The very act of readingprint, say a newspaper,allowed an individualto imaginehim or herselfas partof a largerpopulation, all reading thenewspaper at the sametime. People becamemore aware of commonalitiesof the group whilstits memberseffectively remainedstrangers.16 Thus one's sense of belongingwas not primarilycentred on a smallgroup of people all of whomyou knew,but a larger,'imagined' population, such as thenation. To whatextent did thisapply in New Zealand?The mere presenceof newspapersdid not,in itself,necessarily engender nationalsentiment. The colonialnewspapers read by Pakeha concernedthemselves with local affairsor internationalnews, with'national' news a low priority,leading Tony Ballantyneto suggestthat 'between 1850 and 1900, no [New Zealand] newspapercould claim to be national'.17In contrast,Maori- languagenewspapers, even whenproduced by particulartribal groupings,looked out beyondthe local to widerMaori issues.18 The significantand rapidcultural and economicchange (due to the introductionof such thingsas guns,potatoes, Christianity and disease) impactedon all Maori communities.19This was followedby a formalcolonisation in 1840 bringingall Maori together,albeit nominally at first,under the British Crown. The desirefor Pakeha goods encouragedMaori to becomeproactive in exploringnew opportunities for trade with Pakeha.20 However whileit wouldbe difficultto arguethat Maori society, at leastin the earlycolonial period, was fullyintegrated within capitalist structures,as Paul Moninstates, 'Maori economic activity existed within,and its prospectswere ultimatelydetermined by, a developingworld economic system'.21Despite most Maori 107 journal ofNew Zealand Literature organizingtribally rather than as individuals,they engaged in agriculturaltrade for profit, and investedin assetssuch as flour- millsand sailingships with the intentionof makingmoney.22 Althoughthe missionariesfeared an excessive interestin commercemight divert Maori fromhigher pursuits,23 they neverthelessstrove to makeMaori useful and productive.24The governmentalso encouragedeconomic activityin its early newspapers,printing financial forecasts, produce prices and shippingintelligence.25 Although Maori were not yet the homogenousyet individualized proletariat considered ideal for thegrowth of nationalconsciousness as suggestedby Anderson, capitalismnevertheless impacted on Maori societyin the early nineteenthcentury and as colonizationprogressed through the colonialperiod, Maori became increasinglyenmeshed in the cash-basedeconomy.26 Printculture had a profoundeffect on nineteenth-century Maorisociety, but its existence and development were not driven bycommercial imperatives. In Anderson'smodel capitalism and printcombine in modernEurope, promoting vernacular print culturesaccessible to widersegments of morelocal populations. Printing was a business. A vernacular (of mutually comprehensibledialects) existed for Maori that allowed, first the missionariesand thengovernment officials, to disseminatethe same printedtexts around New Zealand.27Although they may have 'shareda commitmentto Britishcapitalist interests'28 and promotedcommercial activity, seeking a financialreturn for printingMaori-language material was rare and almostnever achievedin thenineteenth century. Their agenda was to change Maori thoughtand behaviour.Although at timesmissionaries exchangedscriptural works for goods or money,the intent was to subsidizethe printing costs or to engendera senseof valuein the product,rather than seeking to make a profit.29Similarly, newspaperswere either given away free, or a chargelevied with the hope of mitigatingsome or all of the productioncosts.30 WalterBuller, editor of Te Karereo Poneke,even publishedthe 108 PrintCulture and theCollective namesof defaultingsubscribers as a meansof gainingfunds for his falteringnewspaper.31 With littleopportunity for Maori- languageprint to developinto a commercialsuccess, it does not quite meet the definitionof Anderson'sprint-capitalism, and maybe morecorrectly described as print-colonialism.It is true thatcolonialism of themodern era was predicatedon capitalist endeavour;that both missionariesand governmentofficials soughtto makeMaori more economically useful; and thatMaori themselvesinitiated commercial undertakings. However, the Maori-languageprint trade itselfwas unsustainablewithout underwritingfrom missionaries,government, or Maori themselves.The actualprinting