THE RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF MAORI MIGRATION TRADITIONS(1)

Abstract

Most Maori tribes possess stories which tell how their ancestors first came to this country from Hawaiki. Although they are full of supernatural occurrences, these stories have, until quite recently, been generally thought to be historical.(2> Some people still consider them to be so; but as archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists and others begin to put forward the outlines of a very different history, belief in the historicity of the migration traditions has been eroded.(3) In the absence of other explanations, they are in danger of appearing to be little more than tall stories which are irrelevant to those with a serious concern for the facts. But when they are viewed in the context of traditional Maori religion and thought, they can, I believe, be seen to be powerful myths of great significance to the tribes which possessed them. For each tribe, or group of related tribes, there is a different ancestral canoe and a different story. Many versions of these traditions were recorded in the second half of the last century, when a great quantity of material-?myths, legends and folktales, ritual chants, poetry, and accounts of customs?was written down, mostly by Maori authorities. Many migration traditions have been published, in whole or part, though by modern standards their editing and translation is generally unsatisfactory. At the same time that the traditions were being recorded, Europeans were beginning to speculate as to the history of the Maori people. The most influential writer on this subject was S. Percy Smith, who founded the Polynesian Society in 1892 and for the next 30 years was editor of its Journal. During this long career he tirelessly propounded his belief that the migration traditions, properly interpreted, are factual accounts which tell how the Maori set out originally from India, lived in various island groups, then migrated to New Zealand. He believed that Maori narratives must be historical because the traditions of different tribes are so similar, and that the similarity of Maori and other Polynesian traditions offers further proof of this. Thus myths such as those of Maaui and Taawhaki, which are to be found in most parts of Polynesia, were, he thought, stories about real people to which, over the centuries, fabulous elements had been added. His attitude towards the migration traditions as they were originally recorded is

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