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

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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.

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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 thesame time. 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 was moreoften performed by Pakeha,and the motivesof the Maori producersof print,like their Pakeha counterparts,were ideological rather than commercialin nature. Althoughthe texts available to Maoriwere less extensivein number and scope than to . many other societies, they neverthelesswere instrumentalin broadeningconcepts of belongingto largergroupings beyond those of hapu or iwi, as discussedin MichaelSteven's article in thisvolume. At first, literaturewas largelylimited to scripturalworks, but thisshould not be underestimated.For example,scholars have long noted the indirectimpact of Luther'stranslation of the Bible on Germannational consciousness.32 Maori embracedliteracy and Bible ownershipas a means to gaining access to new knowledge,33and in the 1830s largenumbers of Maori were reading,and were influencedby the Bible and missionary teaching.This included notions of Christianbrotherhood, which led someconverts to attemptto carrythe message to traditional enemiesin the 1830s and 1840s,sometimes with fatal results.34 From1842 Maoriwere exposed to Maori-languagenewspapers, thefirst, Te Karereo Nui Tireni,printed by thenewly established colonialgovernment. These newspapersalso assistedin creating a self-consciousreading community, which connectedthe scatteredMaori population. Compared to modernnewspapers, 109 journal ofNew Zealand Literature newswas oftenold as niupepaappeared fortnightly or monthly ratherthan daily.Generally small print runs were produced. Anderson'sdaily 'ceremony ... beingreplicated simultaneously bythousands (or millions)'reading the same text does notreally applyto nineteenth-centuryMaori society,35 although Maori, like Anderson'sreaders, were aware of thewider reading community. Maori wrote many lettersto newspaperswith the express purpose of reachingas wide an audience as possible.36 Newspaperswere also sharedand consumed multiple times, read out at meetingsand discussedpublically,37 and in the 1840s Maoritravelled to Aucklandwhen Te Karere o Nui Tireniappeared to meet and discussits contents.38The firsttwo decades of niupepa, produced by the government,some missionary churchesand a fewPakeha evangelic philanthropists unwittingly helped fostera Maori consciousness:subsequent niupepa initiatedby Maoriorganizations which had formedin response to colonization,were more deliberatein theirattempts to constructidentity. The colonialproject in New Zealandwas notabout creating a separateMaori national consciousness, but drawingMaori into the settlerworld. At the signingof the Treatyof Waitangiin 1840, Hobson had greetedeach dignitarywith 'He iwi tahi tatou'-weare one people,reflecting that Treaty endowed Maori withthe rightsand privilegesof Britishsubjects. Subsequently the governmentfollowed a policyof 'amalgamation'primarily designedto bringMaori within the framework of, and underthe controlof the state,but also to assimilateMaori into Pakeha ways.This was translatedas 'he iwi kotahi'- the one people policy.39The governmentproduced the firstMaori-language newspaper,Ko teKarere o Nui Tireniin 1842 to encourageMaori to strivefor modernity and to adopt Westerncultural norms, includingrecognition of the primacyof English Law and supremacyof thegovernment. The missionariesfollowed a very similaragenda. There was no hiddenagenda about the Pakeha desireto pass on knowledgeto Maoriand to tutorthem into the

110 PrintCulture and theCollective modern world. For example in 1843, Ko te Karereexplained its mission, which proved a consistent theme for Pakeha-run niupepa throughmuch of the colonial period. People ask us, for what purpose is your newspaper printed?And we say,our newspaperis printedso that the Maori can advance,so that he understandsour customs,and so thateach tribeknows which tribes are progressingand the things through which they progress.40 Charles Davis, who produced niupepa both for the Native Department and independendy for evangelical purposes, reproduceda similarmessage in his paper, Te Waka o te Im, in 1857, in which can be seen the Pakeha vision of newspapersas not only a conduit of knowledge, but an instrumentof civilizationitself.

One of mycurrent projects is theprinting press for you, the Maori people. Friends,this idea is very proper because thisis a treasurethat enlightens the ignorant, thatshows up fault,and pointsout what is right.This is the treasureby whichthe Pakeha became great,and came by theirmany amazing ideas. So I say to you to embracethis initiative which will civilize [ennoble] you, so youcan achieveyour desires, because it is right.41 The Pakeha-run Maori-language newspapers thus promulgatedWestern culture, sometimes translated as 'the good customs of the Pakeha', to Maori. This was presentedfrom a position of cultural superiority,and sometimes in a rather aggressiveand hectoringmanner, as can be seen in thisappeal to Maori to aspireto education. Whereis yourplanked house, or house of stone and brick?Where is yourship? Where was it built?You like the thingsof the Pakeha,the gun, clothes, [???], books

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butsome of youwon't know how to makethese things. How manyof youknew how to saila ship?Where is the personwho knowsabout the many islands of theocean and theforeigners living in theworld? Who is theperson who understandsmany foreign languages? Listen here my friends,it is the Pakeha who knows all these things...42

Althoughmany Maori, particularlyin the firsttwo decades of colonization,did aspire to modernity,this sort of message may well have alienatedMaori ratherthan motivated them to become more like Pakeha. Discourses thatproclaim that j0# are not like us onlyreinforce existing notions of difference. For the government,the politicalaspects of amalgamation- Maori and Pakeha sittingtogether under the rule of law-were as importantas the culturalaspects, if not more so, but ironically these would have contributedto Maori feelingsof collectivity separate from Pakeha. For example, the discourse of unityis clearly visible in the banner for Te Manuhiri Tuarangi,a governmentniupepa, calling on the Maori and the Pakeha to be united. It does not call on Pakeha to unite with Ngati Porou, Ngapuhi, Tainui, or other tribalgroups, despite tribalpolitical divisionsremaining very strong within Maori society.Rather the paper conflates all Maori tribes into one race, Maori, and inadvertentlyindicates that the Maori and Pakeha were as yetstill

" %ia toitf&a&*tai)Ltia te flflaorime te flafcefja."

Voi, MARCH 1S61.- I.] AUCKLAND, 15, AKARAKA, MAEHB 15, 1861. [Ko. S.

Figure 1: The slogan,calling on Maori and Pakeha to be united,featured on the mastheadof thegovernment's bilingual newspaper, Te Manuhiri Tuarangiand Maori Intelligencer(1861).

112 PrintCulture and theCollective somewhatapart. The rhetoricof "one people"was undercutby a colonialbinary logic in whichthe colonizers and colonizedwere definedas Pakehaand Maori,European and native,white skin and blackskin, older and youngerbrother, civilized and savage, you and us. The bilingualTe ManuhiriTuarangi (Fig. 1) not only definedthe desired unity as beingcomposed as two halves,but furtherexposed the division by presenting its texts in parallelbut separatecolumns. The disjunctivebetween the rhetoric of unityand thebinary logicof colonialismrepresented a clash between political ideals andcultural power, sometimes played out in theMaori press. For example,in 1856 Te Karereo Ponekeprinted letters from Isaac Featherstoneand EdwardStafford over Maori rights to enrolas voters.Featherstone feared a largeMaori votingbloc in the Wellingtonprovince but Stafford,then Premier, informed him thatif Maori qualified to votethen they could register, as befitted theirequal statusunder the Treaty.43However, because their systemsof land tenureand the natureof theirdwellings were culturallydifferent to Pakeha,most Maori did not meet the propertyrequirements of the franchise,and Wellington authoritiessubsequently moved to removeany ineligible Maori fromthe rolls.44Moreover, Pakeha administrations,whether Crown colony or representativesettler governments, were reluctantto share power with Maori and passed laws that discriminatedagainst tangata whenua. Governments used their perceptionsof the low culturalstate of Maori to justifytheir actions,arguing that Maori, as a race, were not sufficiently advancedto enjoyall therights of citizenship.45 Maoridid notunreservedly accept the discourses that Pakeha officialsand missionarieswere promulgating. While on a cultural level manyMaori embracedChristianity and the conceptof modernityand some evenwanted settlers as neighbours,many feltuncomfortable at the thought of Pakehapolitical institutions intrudinginto their communities.46 Although the focus for Maori was theirown tribalcommunities, they could see what was

113 Journalof New ZealandUterature happeningto others,and were preparedpragmatically to ally themselveswith like-minded tribal groups to presenta common frontas a meansof controllingor confrontingcolonization. This was whatmotivated some Maori iwi to formthe Kingitanga, and to selectPotatau Te Wherowheroas thefirst Maori King.47 For Anderson, the initial movements of modern nationalisms,such as the Frenchand Americanrevolutions involvedthrowing off the shacklesof monarchy,and it may seem strangethat Maori might choose a kingas thevehicle of theirown nationalconsciousness. However Maori looked to Europe,particularly Britain, as thefount of modernityand there, in themid 1850s,princes, kings and emperorswere the norm. Thus to nineteenth-centuryMaori, monarchy was partof the newworld. But it was also theconcept of sovereignpower held by such monarchsthat was attractive,as discussedby Wiremu Toetoe,who had livedfor a timein Vienna,and printedin Te Hokioi,the KIngitanga's newspaper. I havebeen overseas and have seen the kings living on thatgreat land, Europe. The mana of one king does not trespassonto another king. And so I thenthought (alas!) whatthe people had decided,to establisha kingfor themselves,was indeed right.48 Justas monarchyreflected modernity, Biblical knowledge had also becomepart of the new nineteenth-centuryMaori world- view.When Wiremu Tamihana, the so-called Kingmaker, wrote to GovernorBrowne to justifythe King movement,he referencedDeuteronomy 17:15 which statesthat 'one from amongthy brethren shalt thou set kingover thee: thou mayest not seta strangerover thee, which is not thybrother', and gave as examplesa numberof monarchsthen reigning over their own people. To the suggestionthat Maori shouldcome underthe Queen,he askedwhy the Americans were permitted to separate, when theywere of the same ethnicbackground.49 Clearly the Bible,a centralcomponent of nineteenthcentury Maori print

114 PrintCulture and theCollective cultureand knowledge,was also instrumentalin the construction of a collectiveMaori consciousness. The KIngitangawas also preparedto employthe Pakeha colonialracial discourse for its own purposes. For example,King Tawhiao,in an addressprinted in Te Hokioistated This is my messageto you,all theblack-skins, whether on theQueen's side, or the King's'.50By adopting'blackskins', a termthat Pakeha newspapersutilized to contrastMaori and Pakeharacially and culturally,Tawhiao soughtto uniteall Maori,whatever their politicalloyalties, while maintainingthe ethnicdifferentiation with Pakeha.51Te Hokioi also maintainedthis black/white dichotomyin itsaccounts of Haiti,which it used as an exemplar foranti-colonial struggle that Maori could identify with. Let the[Maori] councils operate, wait and perhaps the rangatiratanga52of this land will be likethat of Haiti, withwealth, power and laws because we arestriving for the rightcause. Perhaps God willprotect his black- skinnedchildren living in Aotearoa.53 The WaikatoWar (1863-64)dashed any real hopes of the KIngitangauniting Maori withina viable nation,but the movement,even aftermaking its peace withthe New Zealand governmentin 1881, still stressedthat it representedMaori independencedespite being made up, at thistime, mainly of Waikatoand Ngati Maniapoto.In the 1890s the KIngitanga producedanother newspaper, Te Paki o Matariki,whose bilingual bannerin Englishaddressed 'the nationsand Tribes'of New Zealand, proclaiming'This Paper is published by the IndependentMaori Power, of Aotearoa'. The Maori text translatesas 'To theiwi and hapu . . . This Pressbelongs to the KIngitangaof theMaori people (iwi)of Aotearoa'.54The word 'iwi' is used in variousways, as a pluralto indicatelarger tribal groupings(referred to as 'nations'in English)and in thesingular, as theMaori people or race,and also potentiallynation. In 1893

115 Journalof New ZealandLiterature the newspaperpublished anotherbilingual article criticizing the government.The Englishtext stated: Now friendsthe Maori nationswho are residingon these Islands Aotearoa and Waipounamu.There is alwaysgreetings in me towardsyou. Our friendthe Governmentmust not thinkI am speakingto him,no but to ourselvesthe Maori nation of theseIslands. . . . My greatestthoughts are ourselvesthe image of our ancestorswhich is handeddown to us theiroffspring[.]55

The English translationrefers to a singular'Maori nation of theseislands', while the Maori textaddresses nga iwi Maori in the plural,indicating that the messages may have been differentfor Maori and Pakeha audiences.Both textsnevertheless combine all Maori, not onlythose standingseparate from the government.It is clear that the Kingitanga,despite not representingall Maori, stillheld the torchfor a unitedMaori consciousness. The Kingitangawas not the only movementthat possessed pan-Maori aspirations of the post-New Zealand Wars era. Colonizationimpacted on all Maori,whether they had foughtfor or againstthe Crown,or had remainedneutral.56 Although some historians,such as James Belich, mightsuggest that the Crown did not decisivelydefeat Maori during the war phase, by the 1870s the position for all Maori tribeshad become weaker and the need forpolitical unity more imperative.57While such moves may have been pragmatic,the kotahitanga(unity) movements neverthelessproduced a discourseof the politicalunity of te iwi Maori (the Maori people, race or nation). For example, the Hawkes Bay/Wairarapanewspaper, Te Wananga,introduced itself thus:

..youare perhaps wanting to know,what is Te Wananga. Listen,I, Te Wananga,am a Pressto putout thedebates of each waka,whether they are formerrebel tribes, or governmenttribes. We are all Maori. [The purposeof]

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this,Te Wananga,is to putin plainwords the afflictions oppressingteiwi Maori.58 However,political differences arising from the wars meant that cooperationbetween the KIngitanga and formerloyalists would be unlikely,but the latter, with neutral tribal groupings, were able to work together,in largeinter-tribal meetings in the 1870s whichdeveloped more formally into into Te Kotahitangao te Tiritio Waitangi.59 The Kotahitangaestablished its own Maori Parliamentat Papawaiin theWairarapa,60 as well as a seriesof newspapers.

HUIATANGATA KOTAHI.

Figure 2: The banner of the Kotahitanganewspaper, Huia Tangata Kotahi (1893-1895), depictingMaori pulling the two islands of New Zealand together.

The bannerof the newspaper,Huia TangataKotahi (fig. 2), illustratesthe collectiveMaori consciousnessespoused by the Kotahitanga.The titleroughly means people combining together as one, but "huia"in thetitle is a pun,meaning being gathered together,but also thebird whose feathersindicate noble status. The banneralso containsthe image of two Maorimen pulling thetwo islandsof New Zealandtogether, with huia feathersin

117 Journalof New Zealand Literature thecentre. The islandsare, in effect,the colonial 'map-as-logo', identifiedby Anderson,which could form'a powerfulemblem for the anti-colonialnationalisms being born'.61This idea of unitywas also enunciatedin thefirst issue of thepaper: 'May all thetribes be gatheredtogether so thatactions and thoughtsof theMaori tribes of theNorth and South Islands will be as one'.62 The paper saw itselfnot just reportingnews, but as an instrumentof theMaori people. It didnot always envisage Maori as tribal,as nga iwi Maori(Maori tribes) but in the singular,te iwi, the people, or the race. As it stated,'it was decidedto establishthis treasure to benefitte iwi, that is, as a voiceand ears, to show the actionsand arrangementsbeing done forte iwi.'63 Huia TangataKotahi was followedby anotherKotahitanga newspaper,Te Puke ki Hikurangi,which promulgateda very similardiscourse to itspredecessor. In particular,this newspaper continuedto definethe Maori people as a singularconcept. For example,in 1898the newspaper stated: Thisis somethingsad bubbling up in the mind about us, teIwi Maori, living in the islands called New Zealand. In thetimes of ourancestors, this people, the Maori, had twotreasures: one was people,one wasland. In these daysthere are also two, one is land,the other is money. Thispeople, the Maori, is a peopleurgently crying to thosein the past. . .M The authornot only discussesMaori as a people, but also projectsthe conceptback in time,not as somethingimagined into being aftercontact with Pakeha,but existingfrom the distantpast. The Kotahitangalanguished in the startof the twentieth century,and was eclipsedby the Young Maori Party,65 a group of youngChristian Maori men, who soughtto reformthe Maori race.Unlike the Kotahitanga, which had been concernedabout rangatiratangaand landissues, the Young Maori Party was more worriedabout the survival and advancementof Maorias a race.

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Althoughtheir policies, designed to bringMaori into the modern world,have sometimesbeen criticizedas assimilatoryin nature, theirfocus was alwayson Maori as a race or ethnicity.66The movement,with its stronglinks to the Churchof England, utilizedthe Anglican niupepa, Te Pipwharauroato pushits ideas to Maori people throughprint. Although some of their discussionof Maoriactivity could be negativeor scolding,this was balancedwith positive articles on youngeducated Maori, and othersuccesses that all Maoricould be proudof, with the underlyingconcern for racial survival and progress. Anothercentury begins next year. The youngmen of todaywill be theimportant people for the beginning of thecentury, and the responsibility forthe life or death of theMaori race is uponthem. Men,live properly and behaveappropriately towards each otherthis year, so whenyou go intothe new centurybeginning, you will be familiarwith good habits, and theplans that we put forthfor our racewill be right.67 As BernardCohn has noted,the census was a colonial instrumentthat also allowedindigenous subjects to reflecton theirown supposed identities.68Certainly, the Young Maori Partyused the census as a yardstickof the conditionof the Maorirace. When census figures in 1901indicated an increasein the Maoripopulation Te Pipiwharauroaprinted the figuresover two successivemonths, and its editor,Reweti Kohere, gleefully critiquedTakeha prophets',such as SirWalter Buller, who had earlierpredicted the demise of theMaori early in thetwentieth century.Kohere also notedthat many 'half-castes' had notbeen recordedas Maoriand attributedits own and theYoung Maori Party'sefforts as contributingto the increase.69 Much of theYoung MaoriParty's discourse on Maorias a people centredon racialpride, coupled with encouragement or admonitiondesigned to induceMaori to improve.Its leadershad

119 Journalof New ZealandUterature been educatedat Te Aute, the preeminentschool for Maori boys,and no doubthad pickedup manyof the beliefsabout racialhierarchy prevalent at thetime, which emerged in someof their newspaperreporting. For example in an article on AustralianAboriginals who had murderedsome whitesnear Sydney,it noted'The blackrace of Australiais one of thelowest racesof thisworld, and it is saidthat the Maori race is themost noble of all the nativeraces'. It was preparedto concedethat 'some Maoridebase themselves by murderingpeople' although did not diminishthe overallstatus of the Maori people as a whole.70The YoungMaori Party thus utilized Te Pipiwharauroa in responseto fearsof an ethnicor racialdemise to promotea collectiveMaori consciousness.This dovetailedneatly into its visionof a moral,modern and proud Maori people. BenedictAnderson suggests, 'all communitieslarger than primordialvillages of face-to-facecontact (and perhapseven these) are imagined'.71How groupsself-identify can be very dynamic,and Maoriare no exception.Pre-contact Maori, as far as we can surmise,were unaware of otherethnic groups. They structurednotions of humansimilarity and differencearound genealogicallinks, and were unlikely to havedeveloped an ethnic consciousness.Such an imaginingcould only develop after encounteringan 'Other',such as Europeans.Tangata maori and Pakeha were sufficientlystrange to each other, that consciousnessof this differencewould have been inevitable fromthe start. At contact,this would have been a consciousness of physical,cultural or linguisticdifference. Yet the mere knowledgeof otherraces would not have been sufficientfor Maori to startimagining themselves politically beyond tribal groupsand traditional alliances. Accordingto Anderson,capitalism and printcan assistin the developmentof nationalconsciousnesses, by creatinga wider readingpublic consuming texts printed in vernacularlanguages, and by allowingindividuals reading these texts to imagine themselvesbeing connected to otherreaders. While nineteenth

120 PrintCulture and theCollective centuryMaori do notneatly fit Anderson's model, the latter does provide a theoreticalframework as a startingpoint to comprehend the development of a collective Maori consciousness.In particulartheir society had notyet experienced full-blowncapitalism and industrialization,yet it nevertheless underwentequally significant socio-economic change through massconversion to Christianity,and increasingengagement with the marketeconomy. Maori literacyparallels the spread of literacyin vernacularlanguages elsewhere, although not as a by- product and agent of capitalismbut ratherof religious conversion.Although capital was essentialto boththe existence and successof New Zealand'scolonization, it was thesocial and politicalaspects of colonizationrather than capitalismthat impactedmost directly on Maorisociety, and contributedto the rise of a Maori nationalconsciousness. Despite New Zealand havingbeen foundedon theTreaty of Waitangiwhich espoused racial equality,with a governmentthat pursueda policy of amalgamationof 'he iwi kotahi'(one people),colonial society was undercutwith a binarybased bothon perceiveddifferences in race and civilization.Despite proclaimingthe theoretical equalitythat all racesshared, the government'sMaori-language newspapersjustified the inferiorMaori positionin practiceon culturaldifference. Maori were not yetfully civilized, and were stillthe younger brother to be tutoredby his olderbrother. This binary,espoused withinthe early niupepa,can only have accentuatednotions of Maori difference to Pakeha,which in turn helpedfoster a collectiveMaori identity. One can perhapsargue that consciousacts by Maori to politicallyorganize in pan-Maorimovements were merely pragmaticin theface of colonization,and thattribal identity will alwaystrump ethnic collectivity. That may be so, butcolonialism was a realityMaori had to face.Both the Kingitangaand the Kotahitangautilized print culture to espousea Maoricollectivity as a meansof furtheringtheir political aims around land, mana and rangatiratanga.The Young MaoriParty did not sharethese

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politicalgoals, but neverthelesscolonialism had conditioned themto accepta racializedworld. They too employedprint to addresstheir most pressing concern, the survival,rejuvenation and improvementof Maori,as a race.Print culture was a vital ingredientin therise of a collectiveMaori consciousness through thenineteenth century, just as it was forother ethnicities, but is bestunderstood not in termsof Anderson's print-capitalism, but ofprint-colonization.

Notes

1 Angela Ballara, livi: The Dynamicsof Maori TribalOrganisation from c. 1769 toc. 1945 (Wellington:Victoria University Press, 1998), p. 17. 2 Ballara, p. 42; James Belich, MakingPeoples: A Historyof theNew Zealanders:From Polynesian Settlement tothe End ofthe Nineteenth Century (Auckland:Penguin Books, 2007), p. 233. 3 Various possible derivationsof the word "pakeha" exist,including a sea deity,a pale-skinnedsupernatural being (also known as turehuor patupaiarehe),or part of a rowing chant by Captain Cook's men. Hoani Nahe, The Originsof the Words "Pakeha" and "Kaipuke"', transl.by Elson Best, Journalof thePolynesian Society, 3 (1894), pp. 235-6; S. Percy Smith, Maori Wars of the NineteenthCentury, (Christchurch:Whitcombe and Tombs Limited,1910), p. 10; Mohi Turei:Ana Tuhingai Rotoi Te ReoMaori, ed. by WiremuKaa and Te Ohorere Kaa (Wellington:Victoria University Press, 1996), p. 106. 4 Ballara,p. 42. 5 For example, see The MissionaryRegister, (1835), p. 471, Early New Zealand Books, http:/ / www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz: GJ. Turner,The Pioneermissionary: Life ofthe Rev. Nathaniel Turner, Missionary in New Zealand, Tonga,and Australia, (Melbourne: Wesleyan Conference Office,1872); Te Karereo Nui Tireni,(1 January1842), p. 1; Te Waka o teIwi, (1 October 1857), p. 1.

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6 For example,Elizabeth L. Eisenstein,The Printing Press as an Agentof Change:Communications and CulturalTransformations in Early-modern Europe,(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979). 7 An exception perhaps is Ranginui Walker who analyses contemporaryMaori acticismin Freireanterms. RJ. Walker,The Genesis of Maori Activism',journal of thePolynesian Society, 93, 3 (1984), p. 275. 8 John Rangihau,*Being Maori' in TeAo Hurihuri:The WorldMoves on, ed. by Michael King (Wellington:Methuen, 1977), p. 174. 9 Benedict Anderson,Imagined Communities: Reflections on theOrigin and Spreadof Nationalism, 2nd edn (London: Verso, 1991). 10 Michiel Baud, 'Beyond Benedict Anderson: Nation-Buildingand Popular Democracy in Latin America', InternationalReview of Social History,No 50, (2005), p. 486. 11 Jonathon Culler & Pheng Cheah, eds., Groundsof Comparison: Aroundthe Work of Benedict Anderson, (New York: Routledge,2003). 12 Anderson,pp. 12-22. 13 Anderson,pp. 37-8. 14 Anderson,p. 77. 15 Anderson,p. 43. 16 Anderson,pp. 35-36. 17 Tony Ballantyne,Talking Listening,Writing, Reading: Communication and Colonisation,The Allan MartinLecture, (Canberra:ANU, 2009), p. 22. 18 For example see Lyn Waymouth,'Parliamentary Representation for Maori: Debate and Ideology in Te Wanangaand Te Waka Maori o Niu Tirani, 1874-8' in ReneAtu, taku Manul: DiscoveringHistory, Languageand Politicsin theMaori-Language Newspapers, ed. by Jenifer Curnow, Ngapare Hopa and Jane McRae (Auckland: Auckland UniversityPress, 2002), pp. 158-173; Jane McRae, "'Ki nga pito e wha o te Ao nei" (To the Four Comers of the World): Maori Publishing and Writingfor Nineteenth-CenturyMaori-Language Newspapers' in Agentof Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L Eisensteined. by Sabrina Alcom Baron, Eric N. Iindquist and

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EleanorF. Shevlin(Amherst & Boston:University of Massachysetts Press,2007), pp. 294-5. 19 Belich,Making Peoples, pp. 145-6,149-152, 159, 164-9. 20 M.P.K. Sorrenson,'Maori and Pakeha'in TheOxford History of New Zealand,2nd edn ed. by.G. W. Rice (Auckland:Oxford University Press,1992), p. 145. 21 Paul Monin,'Maori Economiesand ColonialCapitalism', in The New OxfordHistory of New Zealand,ed. by Giselle Byrnes (Melbourne:Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 126. 22 Hazel Petrie,Chiefs of Industry: Maori Tribal Enterprise inEarly Colonial New Zealand(Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2006), passim. Some Maori at this time were engagedin more individualistic commercialactivity. See Belich,Making Peoples, pp. 214-5. 23 JohnOwens, The UnexpectedImpact: Missionaries and Societyin Early19th Century New Zealand*in Religionin NewZealand, ed. by ChristopherNicol andJames Veitch (Wellington: Religious Studies Department,Victoria University, 1983), p. 21. 24 SamuelMarsden began training Maori in usefultrades in Sydney evenbefore missionary activity began in New Zealand.Petrie, p. 44. 25 Lachy Paterson, ColonialDiscourses: Niupepa Maori 1855-1863 (Dunedin:Otago University Press, 2006), pp. 122-134. 26 Monin,pp. 140-142,145. 27 The one exceptionmay be southernNgai Tahu. According to Tahu Potiki,Maori at Karitaneclaimed to be unableto understandthe preachingof the missionaryRev Watkinwho was basing his sermonson Maori-languagetexts fromthe North Island. See http://www.otakourunaka.co.n2/index.php/runaka/tereo: Jane McRae,'From Maori Oral Traditionsto Print'in Book<& Printin New Zealand:A. Guideto PrintCulture in Aotearoa,ed. by Penny Griffith,Ross Harveyand Keith Maslen (Wellington:Victoria UniversityPress, 1997), p. 19. However,Maori fromthis region laterpurchased and sent lettersto Maori-languagenewspapers, suggestingthat theremay have been other issues at play for Watkins,other than purely linguistic differences.

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28 David Pearson,A DreamDeferred: The originsof Ethnic Conflict in New Zealand(Wellington: Allen & Unwin, Port Nicholson Press, 1990), p. 42. 29 For example,Missionary Register, (1835), p. 310; (1844), pp. 451, 452. 30 For example see Te Karereo Poneke,(29 March 1858), pp. 2-3; Te Haeata, (1 January1860), p. 1; Te Waka Maori o Ahuriri,(8 August 1863), p. 4. 31 Te Karereo Poneke,(15 August 1858), p. 2. 32 Hans Kohn, The Idea of Nationalism:A Studyof Its Originsand Background.First published 1944, (New Brunswick,NJ: Transaction Publishers,2005), p. 143; Anderson,p. 39. 33 It is difficultto assess accuratelythe trueextent of Maori literacyin the nineteenth century,with differentscholars using different methodologiesto arriveat differentconclusions. For example,CJ. Parr, 'Maori literacy',journal of the Polynesian Society, 72 (1963), pp. 219, 220; D.F. McKenzie, Oral Culture,Literacy & printin EarlyNew Zealand(Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1985), p. 34n; Keith Sinclair,Kinds of Peace: Maori people after the Wars, 1870-85 (Auckland: Auckland UniversityPress, 1991), p. 34. It was likelythat Maori literacywas relativelyhigh compared to the Pakeha population,and that due to the tribal nature of Maori society, literatespassed knowledge gleaned from reading on to non-literates.Paterson, ColonialDiscourses, pp. 38-9. 34 Hawke's Baj Herald,(25 April 1888), p. 3; George I. Laurenson, Te Hahi Weteriana:Three Half Centuriesof theMethodist Maori Missions, 1822-1972 (Auckland: Wesley Historical Society of New Zealand, 1972), p. 47. 35 Anderson,p. 35. 36 Paterson,Colonial Discourses, pp. 44-5. 37 Paterson,Colonial Discourses, pp. 38-9. 38 WalterBrodie, Remarkson thePast andPresent State of New Zealand:Its Government,Capabilities and Prospects(London: Whittaker,1845), p. 110.

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39 JoanMetge argues that "tahi" means "together" so Maoriwould haveunderstood Hobson's "he iwitahi tatou" in termsof peoples togetherrather than denoting one people,which would be "he iwi kotahitatou". See Joan Metge, Tuamaka:The Challengeof Difference in AotearoaNew Zealand(Auckland: Auckland UniversityPress, 2010) p. 17 citedin The TreatyofWaitangi Companion: Maori andPake ha from Tasmanto Today, ed. byVincent O'Malley, Bruce Stirling and Wally Penetito(Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2010), pp. 408-9. Thatthe government policy was translatedas "he iwikotahi" clearly demonstratesthe government's intent of "amalgamation". 40 Ko teKarere o Nui Tireni,(1 June1843), p. 22. 'E mea maite tangata ki a matou.Hei aha ta koutouNuipepa i taia ai? Na ka mea atu matou,I taiaai ta matouMuipepa kia kakeai te tangatamaori, Ida mohioai ia kia matoutikanga, kia mohiotia ai ano hokie teraiwi, e teraiwi, nga iwi e kakeana, me ngamea hoki i kakeai.' 41 Te Wakao teIwi, (October 1857), p. 1. 'Ko tetahio aku tikangaka mea atunei ko te perehita pukapukamo koutoumo ngaiwi Maori. Nui atu e hoa ma te tikao teneiwhakaaro no te mea he taonga whakamohiotenei i te hungae kuareana, he kaiwhakaatu i te he, he kai tohutohui te tikako te taongatenei i nui ai te pakeha,i whiwhiai ki te tinio ana whakaarowhakamiharo. Na ka mea atu ahau ki a koutoukia maia ki tenei tikangawhakarangatira mo koutou,kia tutuki to koutouhiahia, no te meako te tikatenei.' 42 Ko te Karereo Nui Tireni,(1 September1843), p. 35. 'Kei hea ta koutouwhare papa, whare kowhatu, pereki ranei? Kei hea ta koutou kaipuke?I hangaki hea? E wakapaiana koutouki nga mea a te pakeha,te pu, nga kakahu,nga titaha,nga puka,e kore etahio koutoue matauana ki te hangai eneimea; e hia o koutoue matau ki te wakaterekaipuke? kei hea te tangatae mohioana ki nga tini motuo te moana,me nga tauiwie noho ana i te ao nei?kowai te tangatai mohioki nga tinireo o nga tauiwi.Kia rongomai e hoa ma ko te pakehae mohioana kienei mea katoa. . .' 43 TeKarere o Poneke, (26 April1858), pp. 2-3. 44 TeKarere o Poneke, (5 August1 859), p. 2.

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45 For example,see AlanWard, A Showof Justice: Racial Amalgamation* in NineteenthCentury New Zealand(Auckland: Auckland University Press,1995), p. 98. 46 Belich,Making Peoples, pp. 224-5. 47 RanginuiWalker, Ka WhawhaiTonu Matou: Struggle Without End, rev.ed.,(Auckland: Penguin, 2004), pp. 111-2. 48 TeHokioi, (10 November1862), p. 1. 49 Appendicestothe Journal ofthe House of Representatives, (1865), E-ll, pp. 4,6. 50 TeHokioi, (1 January1863), p. 1. 51 LachyPaterson, cKiri Ma, KiriMangu: The Terminologyof Race and Civilisationin the Mid-Nineteenth-CenturyMaori-Language Newspapers'in RereAtu, Taku Manul Discovering History, Language <& Politicsin theMaori-Language Newspapers, ed. by JeniferCurnow, NgapareHopa and JaneMcRae (Auckland:Auckland University Press,2002), pp. 86-7. 52 There has been considerableacademic debate on the term, rangatiratanga,which representsMaori rightsprotected in the Maoriversion of the Treatyof Waitangi.It can representchiefly rights,autonomy, and independencebut was also used in the nineteenthcentury to translateconcepts such as wealth and civilisation. 53 TeHokioi, (2 April1863), p. 2. Waiho marireki a mahinga runanga, taihoapea ka ritete Rangatiratangao te motunei ki to Haiti,whai taonga,whai mana, whai ture, tatemea e toheana matouki te taha tika,tera pea te Atuae tiakii ona tamarikikiri mangu, e noho ana ki Aotearoa.' 54 Te Paki o Matariki,(8 May 1893),p. 1. 'Ki ngaIwi, ki ngaHapu . . . Ko teneiPerehi, na Te Kingitanga,o te Iwi Maori,o Aotearoa'. 55 Te Paki o Matariki,(8 May 1893),pp. 4-5. 'Na e hoa ma e nga Iwi Maorie noho nei i Aotearoame te Waipounamu,He aumihitonu kei roto i ahau mo koutoukei whakaaromai ra, to tatouhoa te Kawanatanga,e koreroatu ana ahau kiaia, kaore.Engari kia tatou kinga Iwi Maori,o te Motunei . . . Heoi ra ko takuwhakaaro ia ko

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tatouano, i rungai te ahua o tatouTupuna, tuku iho ana kiatatou kinga Uri e oranei.' 56 Belich,Making Peoples, pp. 257-68. 57 James Belich, TheNew ZealandWars and theVictorian Interpretation of RacialConflict (Auckland: Penguin Books, 1988), pp. 311-16 58 Te Wananga,(4 September1874), p. 9. '...e kimikimiana pea koutou,he aha ra a Te Wananga,whakarongo mai, he Perehiahau a Te Wanangahei whakaatui nga koreroa ia Waka, a ia Waka, ahakoaiwi hauhau, iwi Kawanatanga, he Maorikatoa tatou, tenei Te Wanangahei whakamaramai nga mamae e peehi nei i te iwi maori...' 59 Belich,Making Peoples, p. 267 60 Walker,Ka WhawhaiTonu, pp. 153-6,165-6 61 Anderson,p. 175. 62 Huia TangataKotahi, (8 February1893), p. 3. 'Kia huianga iwi kotoa kiakotahi te haeremete whakaro onga iwi maori, o Aotearoamete waipounamu.' 63 Huia TangataKotahi, (25 November1893), p. 1. '. . .kawhakaro tia nei kia whakaarahiatenei taonga hei pai mo te iwi,ara hei Reo, hei Taringa,hei whakaatu inga mahi me ngatikanga e mahianei mo te iwi...' 64 TePuke ki Hikurangi,(2 August 1898), p.l. Tenei tengakau aroha te pupu ake nei i rotoi te hinengaro,mo tataumo te iwi Maori,e noho neii rungai ngamotu e kiianei Niu Tireni,e ruanga taonga nui o teneiiwi o te Maorii te takiwai o tatauTipuna, he Tangata tetahi,he Whenuatetahi, i enei ra, e ruahoki, he Whenuatetahi, he monitetahi, ko teneiIwi ko te Maori,he Iwi tanginonoi kia ratau i mua...' 65 Thiswas originallyknown as Te AuteCollege Students Association as manyof its members had attendedthat school. 66 Lachy Paterson,'Reweti Kohere's Model Village',New Zealand JournalofHistory, 41:1 (2007),pp. 27-8. 67 Te Pipirvharauroa,(1 January 1900), p. 5. 'ka timatahe rau tau ke a teratau. Ko nga tamarikitaane o naianeinga tinotangata mo te

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wahitimatanga o terarau tau,a kei rungai a ratoute ora te mate raneimo te Iwi Maori.E tamama, kia pai te noho,kia tika te mahia tetahiki tetahi i teneitau, kia uru rawa ake ai tatouki te rautau mea ake nei ka timata,kua waia tatouki nga tikangapai, ka tikahoki a tatoutikanga e whakatakotoai mo to tatouIwi/ 68 BernardCohn, The Census,Social Structure and Objectificationin South Asia' in Cohn, An Anthropologistamong the Historians and Other Essays(Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 249-50. 69 TePipMaraurva, (1 May1901), p. 1; (1 June1901), p. 5. 70 Te PipMaraurva,(1 August1900), p. 11. 'Ko te iwimangumangu o Ahitereiriatetahi o nga iwiwhakamutunga mai i te ao nei,a e kiia ana ko te iwiMaori te iwirangatira atu o ngaiwi maori katoa, otita e whakataurekarekaana ano etahi Maori i a ratou ki te kohuru tangata.' 71 Anderson,p. 6.

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