He kupu tuku iho mō tēnei reanga: A critical analysis of waiata and haka as commentaries and archives of Māori political history Rachael Te Āwhina Ka‘ai-Mahuta A thesis submitted to Auckland University of Technology in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) June 2010 Dedication For my Papa ~ Māhealani Keoki Greig Ka‘ai, And my Koro ~ Edwin Thomas Oldman. Neither were Māori, but both encouraged and supported my passion for Te Ao Māori. There has not been a more fortunate grandchild than me I miss you both terribly. ii Table of Contents page Dedication ii Figures vii Images vii Tables vii Attestation of Authorship viii Acknowledgements ix Abstract xii Preface 1 Personal Introduction 1 Meaning behind the title 2 Language 3 Orthographic conventions 4 A clarification of terms 5 Scope of research 8 Thesis outline 9 Chapter One: Introduction 11 Māori world-view 12 Methodology 16 The Tīenga Model 18 Mātauranga Māori 22 Indigenous research ethics 25 Research method – primary sources 27 Secondary sources 30 Translation 40 Summary and conclusions 42 Chapter Two: Oral Tradition 44 The history of oral history 44 Oral history and oral tradition 46 Oral tradition and accounts 47 Criticism of oral history and tradition 48 ‘Time’ in a Māori world-view 52 Origins of te reo Māori 53 Oral tradition in Polynesia, including Aotearoa/New Zealand 61 Māori oral literature 63 Memory and knowledge transmission 66 Spoken art – stories, songs, poetry 71 iii Continuity of the oral tradition 79 Summary and conclusions 80 Chapter Three: History of waiata and haka 82 Origins of tīpuna Māori 82 Hawaiki 85 The ‘myth’ myth 88 Stories of atua and tīpuna 90 Te Haka a Tāne-rore 93 Tinirau and Kae 94 Mataora and Niwareka 100 Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga (Māui) 102 Tama-te-kapua and Whakatūria 103 Wairangi 106 Te Ponga and Te Puhi-huia 109 Te Kahureremoa and Taka-kōpiri 110 Summary and conclusions 111 Chapter Four: Waiata as archives 113 Hawaiki transplanted 113 Waiata brought from and about Hawaiki 115 Oriori 117 ‘Pō! Pō!’ 118 Knowledge transmission and waiata 124 Ownership of waiata 130 Summary and conclusions 132 Chapter Five: Language decline 134 Impact of colonisation on te reo Māori: A critical review of the State education 134 system Te Tiriti o Waitangi 135 Mission schools 137 Education Ordinance Act 1847 138 Native Schools Act 1867 140 The Native Schools Code 1880 141 Te reo Māori banned 143 The Hunn Report 1960 147 Te reo Māori statistics 149 Kaupapa Māori education 150 Te Kōhanga Reo 152 Te Kura Kaupapa Māori 153 The impact of colonisation and language decline on Māori oral tradition 158 The impact of colonisation and language decline on waiata 161 iv Summary and Conclusions 173 Chapter Six: Waiata as political commentaries 175 What is ‘politics’ in a Māori world-view 175 The evolution of ‘politics’ in a Māori world-view 177 Role of waiata as political commentary 178 Role of political waiata in protest 187 Examples of political waiata 194 Waiata-ā-ringa and WWII 208 Māori renaissance and the recent past 219 Summary and conclusions 233 Chapter Seven: Waiata as evidence of Māori political history 235 Looking to the past, from the present 235 Waiata and the preservation of historical knowledge 236 The Waitangi Tribunal 239 Waitangi Tribunal use of oral tradition 240 The Muriwhenua Claim and criticism of the oral tradition 242 Waitangi Tribunal use of waiata 243 Mohaka River Report 245 Te Whanganui-a-Orotu Report 248 Summary and conclusions 252 Chapter Eight: Proposal for a National Repository of Māori waiata and 254 haka The ability to adapt to changing circumstances 254 The written word and waiata 256 Preserving the ‘sound’ of waiata and haka 258 ‘E tipu e rea’ 260 Importance of archiving 262 A digital repository of waiata and haka 267 Commercialisation 268 Intellectual property rights 271 Control of Māori oral literature 273 Restricting access 275 Sourcing material to populate the repository 276 Summary and conclusions 278 Chapter Nine: Tāmata Toiere 280 ‘Whakarongo’ 280 A digital repository of waiata and haka 281 The target audience 282 v Locating the repository on the web 282 The name of the repository 283 Content that appears on the homepage 283 - Welcome to the site 284 - Learn 285 - Connect 287 - Contribute and Contact us 288 - Featured songs 289 - Featured media 289 - Recently added 290 - Search 290 - Browse 291 Search/Browse Results page 294 Song page 295 Composer information 296 Restricted Access Options 297 Recording 297 Different versions 298 Summary and conclusions 298 Chapter Ten: Conclusion 300 Bibliography 304 Glossary 325 vi Figures page Figure 1: Rangihau’s Conceptual Model 17 Figure 2: Tīenga Model 20 Figure 3: The cycle of Māori history 67 Images Image 1: Haka taparahi 7 Image 2: Pākehā world-view informed map 14 Image 2a: Māori world-view informed map 14 Image 3: Racist postcard 34 Image 4: Ngāti Tūwharetoa peruperu 164 Image 5: Parihaka 190 Image 6: Sir Apirana Ngata 209 Image 7: Waiata-ā-ringa 215 Image 8: Welcome home for Māori Battalion 218 Image 9: Seabed-Foreshore Protest Placard 231 Image 10: Seabed-Foreshore Hīkoi, 2004 232 Image 11: ‘E tipu e rea’ 260 Image 12: Tāmata Toiere homepage header 281 Image 13: Tāmata Toiere homepage full view 284 Image 14: Welcome to the site 285 Image 15: The ‘Learn’ tab 285 Image 16: About this site 286 Image 17: Resources 287 Image 18: The ‘Connect’ tab 288 Image 19: Contribute 288 Image 20: Featured songs 289 Image 21: Featured media 289 Image 22: Recently added 290 Image 23: Search 290 Image 24: The ‘Browse’ tab 292 Image 25: Search results 294 Image 26: Song page 295 Tables Table 1: Polynesian groupings 54 Table 2: Some varieties of pounamu 55 Table 3: Some varieties of kūmara 56 Table 4: Astronomy 57 Table 5: Stars which heralded the start of each new month 59 Table 6: Te Kapa Haka a Tinirau 97 Table 7: ‘Ownership’ 130 Table 8: Restricted access search results 297 Table 9: Restricted access information 297 vii Attestation of Authorship I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor material which to a substantial extent has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning. viii Acknowledgements First, I would like to acknowledge all of the Māori composers who have left behind an incredible collective legacy of waiata and haka which provided the inspiration for this thesis. Without your taonga, this thesis would not exist. I must thank all of my informants for being so incredibly generous with their time and knowledge. Thanks to Dr Tīmoti Kāretu, Dr Te Wharehuia Milroy, Wiremu Kaa, Jossie Kaa, Professor Pou Temara, Kāhautu Maxwell, Donna Grant, Joe Harawira, Ruakere Hond, Waldo Houia, Keri Kaa, Hana O’Regan, Pae Ruha, Hone Sadler, Kahutoi Te Kanawa, and Joe Te Rito. All of my informants are extremely busy people with their own work and personal commitments compounded by the huge commitment they each have to their communities and iwi. Despite this, many of them went out of their way to help me. Thanks to Ruakere for picking me up from the airport (and dropping me off), to Pāpā Tīmoti for squeezing me in during his lunch break at a kura reo, and to Kahu for her coming to my rescue over the phone. Special thanks must go to those whānau who invited me to stay with them during the interview process. I would like to thank the Milroy whānau (particularly Whaea Niwa), Whaea Hana, Koka Jossie and Matua Wiremu for their generous hospitality in having me stay in each of their homes, which are as warm as the people themselves. I have been fortunate to have the supervision of the two Professors of Te Ipukarea, the National Māori Language Institute. I wish to thank my supervisors, Te Murumāra and Te Ihorei, for their commitment to my kaupapa and for ensuring that I produce quality work. They have gone above and beyond the call of duty, as they do with all of their students, which accounts for the fact that they are in high demand as supervisors. I have learnt a great deal from them during this journey, but perhaps the greatest lesson I have learnt is not academic in nature, it is that one person can make a big difference in the world and have a positive impact on many along the way. So, to the Professors of Te Ipukarea, a heartfelt thank you. I know that I would not have completed this thesis without your guidance or drive. ix Every thesis student who has had the privilege of Tania Smith’s help wonders what they would have done without her. I am no different. Tan, you are the queen of formatting and you do it out of the kindness of your heart. Thank you for the hours spent making my thesis look pretty whilst ensuring that it fulfills University regulations. Peter Moorfield and the Vo2 team are the reason the digital repository is no longer just a dream but is instead, a reality. Thanks Peter (and the team) for your patience in taking my vision and creating something which exceeded all expectations. You guys are amazing at what you do and I will continue to sing your praises. To the staff of Te Ara Poutama and the wider AUT whānau, thank you for all of the support and encouragement.