The chants and songs of the New Zealand Maoris are an archaic survival, perhaps the most ancient known to man, from a far-distant past when the Polynesian people lived somewhere on the mainland of South-East Asia. During many centuries of isolation in the Pacific, the Maori people had been free to perpetuate their ancient culture, undisturbed by outside influences of any kind. The songs which fell so strangely on the ears of the early Pacific explorers and which they described as “a dreary monotone”, “slow and solemn”, “monotonous”, “doleful”, were an echo from a forgotten past, dating back perhaps a thousand years.

Music in a primitive society tends to be one of the steadiest elements of culture because it is inescapably bound up with the ritual of religion, magic, healing, sorcery, and other kinds of occult practice. In pre-European Maori society, invocations, charms, spells, and incantations remained sacrosanct and therefore not subject to change while fundamental beliefs and concepts of life were still held; but suddenly these gave way when they were challenged by the influence of Western thought and ways of living.

Women in general were regarded as being the inferior of man, though it was possible for a woman endowed with initiative to acquire considerable standing in her own tribe. Children retained an interest in all land, fishing, and seashore rights derived from both parents, and this in many cases elevated the status of women. As Best (1924) stated: “the Maori leaned to agnatic filiation; the male sex possesses greater mana than does the female, for is not man descended directly from the gods, while woman had to be created from earth!”

It was usual for children to be born in the open air or in a temporary building specially erected for the purpose. Children of superior families were received into the tribe after a special baptismal ceremony conducted by a leading priestly expert. Small babies were retained at night in a kit (kete) packed with fine moss or muka fibre. In this manner they were able to survive the crowded conditions of the whare-puni. As they grew older they were carried on the backs of the mothers who wore a large-sized cloak, usually a korowai, to hold them in position.

When a person was taken sick he was immediately transferred to a temporary building set apart from the sleeping houses of the majority of the people. He became tapu until recovery was effected or death intervened in which case the hut would eventually be burned. Most Maoris preferred to die, as they had lived, in the open air. Sometimes sick persons were taken a considerable distance that they might die on their own land. Carved pillars or posts might indicate resting places in the case of a chief.

The powers of memory possessed by the Maori were considerable and highly developed. Schools of learning were established, the scholars being selected youths and young men from superior families. There were various grades of schools, the most tapu being the Whare Wananga, where a knowledge of esoteric lore, ritual, and ceremony was imparted by a tohunga. In such schools, under conditions of intense tapu, the sacred teaching and rites pertaining to the cult of Io the Supreme Being were performed as well as the lore pertaining to the various heavens. Certain stones termed whatu turuki were presented to pupils who gained proficiency in all grades of instruction, a high standard of aptitude being required. In schools of various grades men were taught their genealogy or whakapapa, in most cases reaching back to one or another of the ancestors who came in the “Fleet”.

Death to the Maori was an event of considerable importance and great significance, for it ushered in the rite of the tangi, weeping for the dead, now limited to three days, but once longer. The body of the deceased was trussed with knees up before becoming rigid, the arms being placed across the breast and the body covered with a garment. The hair was oiled, dressed, and adorned with plumes of native birds such as huia and long-tailed cuckoo. The face was adorned with red ochre. Usually after the days of the tangi had been completed, the body was placed in the branches of a tree, a cave, or sacred burial place, several trees being set aside for this purpose in different localities. One such tree at Hokianga Harbour was still tapu because of the bodies placed in its branches. Laceration of the body was a common custom during the tangi, chiefly confined to near women relatives. At a later date it was usually customary to have a bone-scraping ceremony when the bones would be placed in a secure hiding place.

by William John Phillipps, formerly Registrar and Ethnologist, Dominion Museum, Wellington.

• The Coming of the Maori, Buck, Sir P. H. (1949)
• The Moa-hunter Period in Maori Culture, Duff, R. (1956)
• Anthropology in the South Seas (jt. ed.) Freeman, J. D., and Geddes, W. R. (1959)
• Culture Change in Prehistoric New Zealand, Golson, J.

In the autumn when the main harvests of sea, land, and forest had been gathered and stored for winter, the people gave themselves over to a short period of games, amusements, and competitive contests. Elders appear to have entered into the spirit of the various games as eagerly as did the children and vied with each other in kite flying, top spinning, posture dancing, wrestling, dart throwing, memory tests, and the erection of string figures, etc. Children's games included the sailing of flax boats, the use of poi balls, in which women also excelled, skipping, and swimming.

Boys were taught from their youth upwards to acquire dexterity in the use of weapons as well as developing keenness of vision and the attributes of a warrior. Armed with korari (flax flower stalks) they practised the strokes and parries as instructed by adults. Using kakaho (flower stalks of the toetoe) the young people also became adept in the use of the spear and dart.

The Maori expressed himself in songs and melodies of which thousands were known when Europeans arrived. There were many subjects on which songs were founded, such as the yearning of a widow for her husband, and ditties or lullabies for children. Maori songs usually covered a range of not more than one and a half notes; but inside that range there were many half or even quarter tones.

Tattoo or moko, particularly facial tattoo, had developed in New Zealand to a high degree of perfection, and a fully tattooed man presented a remarkable appearance, every portion of his face being adorned with spirals and curved lines drawn with much nicety and precision. The tattooing implement (uhi) consisted of a small adze-like shaft to which was attached a bone blade, often toothed for better incision. The blade was regularly dipped into a mixture of soot and water, the soot being obtained by burning the resinous heart wood of the white pine or, in the north, of the kauri. The tattooing artist struck the uhi with a light mallet, usually a stalk of bracken fern. The incisions were painful and most work was done over a period of time.

The hips and buttocks of men were also tattooed. These were exposed in the frenzy of the war dance. Women had tattoo confined to the chin, lips, and sometimes the centre of the forehead. Experts on women's tattoo practised using iron blades until about the turn of the century. Men with tattoo could still be seen in Wellington as late as 1918.

Bush tracks crossing ranges of hills and mountains and rivers were the only means of inland transport in early New Zealand; consequently the manufacture of canoes became essential for all coastal transport as well as for river journeys. To cross lakes or make small journeys, rafts were manufactured from raupo lashed in bundles. These were either double or in the shape of canoes. Other rafts were of logs lashed together in outrigger style.

There was considerable work in the making of a large canoe from a forest tree. First, a tohunga would lift the tapu from the tree and Tane, ruler of the forest, be propitiated by appropriate ritual. Totara was the tree chosen for canoes. By means of adzes and the use of fire the tree was felled, men working in relays. Then commenced the hollowing process, and a dug-out canoe resulted. Often it was a matter of considerable labour dragging the canoe to the water. If it were required as a war canoe, special top sides, or rauawa, were fitted as well as a bow piece (tauihu), and a carved stern post (taurapa); but if for fishing or coastal work, less elaborate finishing was the rule. River canoes were plain dug-out types.

The hill fort or pa was erected on suitable hills or ridges as well as on strategic situations with sea, river, lake, or swamp forming a natural barrier on one side. All pas varied with terrain and locality. Stockades, as well as trenches and ramparts, were built to protect the sides open to enemy attack. Inside the pa was established a village with sleeping huts, stores of kumara, and other foods with specially erected pataka as well as pits for water or special access to a spring if possible. A wooden gong (pahu) situated on the highest point was beaten to warn of an approaching enemy.

Fighting stages were erected over gateways and other vulnerable points to give protection and from these darts and stones would be thrown down on an enemy. Fire was greatly feared by the defenders of a pa. A hostile force would endeavour to use red-hot stones and fire brands in an endeavour to cause panic by setting fire to the buildings which were inside the enclosure.

Every pa had its protective deity. This was often a special stone which retained the mana or prestige of the pa and was buried under one of the corner posts. In general the pa was the stronghold of the tribe, a place of refuge when danger threatened and security for all in time of war.

In the early Moa Hunter period it seems that warfare was unknown (Duff, 1956). We can picture new settlers in a new land with food in abundance having no room for minor quarrels and tribal jealousies. But with increasing population and the addition of virile strains from the homeland, the pattern of life would gradually change, after which raids and counter raids would become a recognised procedure.

In Polynesia we find a short weapon or club and a long weapon, a spear. In New Zealand with its abundance of forest trees, new long weapons evolved and became more specialised. The same was true of short club-like weapons. The two main long weapons, the taiaha and the tewhatewha, were unique in being light and used equally by both hands. They could be used only by an adept who was an expert in speed of movement and rapid manipulation. The short club-like weapons (patu) were made of wood, bone, or stone, the most highly prized being the meremere or patu pounamu, made of greenstone and often handed down in families as an heirloom.

Primitive tools in daily use in New Zealand were flake knives, sometimes even pebble tools, usually manufactured from chert or obsidian. Flake knives were used in the kitchen and for many cutting purposes. Some had secondary chipping giving a sawlike edge. Chert was quarried at many specified points; but obsidian had its main source at Mayor Island (Tuhua) in the Bay of Plenty. To Moa Hunter and Maori alike the treasured obsidian became of much importance, partly because of the ease with which chips might be struck from the parent stone and used as cutting tools. It is likely that a brisk mercantile traffic in obsidian was established for a period of several centuries before the discovery of greenstone. Obsidian was also used for drill points on primitive reciprocal hand drills, by women for cutting their flesh at tangis for the dead, and by men as a flensing tool for cutting up marine mammals which were cast ashore at intervals. Hair cutting was also done with an obsidian tool. Hammer stones for striking flakes from the main core were usually held in the palm of the hand or between the fingers and were of a hard quartzite. Rasps, burnishers, and all grades of polishing stones were manufactured as required, many of varying types of sandstone. A few also were of bone or slate. These stone tools were constantly used by all Polynesian inhabitants of New Zealand.

About 1,000 years ago a new era commenced with the discovery of greenstone or pounamu, a hard fine-grained nephrite rock, first supplies of which came from the Arahura and Taramakau Rivers on the West Coast of the South Island. Circulation of greenstone supplies would be a gradual process over many years, and some recognised form of barter or exchange of presents must have been used by northern tribes to secure the valued pounamu. The possession of huia feathers and obsidian by northern tribes, as well as the finest garments manufactured from Taranaki flax, would place the northerners in a strong strategic position for securing greenstone by peaceful means. It is possible that ownership of greenstone cutting tools would be responsible for the reduced manufacture of stone adzes evident after the arrival of the “Fleet”.

The warmth-loving and scantily clad Polynesians soon discovered that at night, particularly during winter, it was warmer to sleep below ground level than on the surface. In New Zealand, therefore, most of the buildings were excavated over the floor area to a depth of anything up to 18 in. and, in some instances, to 3 or 4 ft. This follows a Northern Hemisphere custom and is the response of primitive man to a major environmental discomfort. Side walls, if exposed, were piled with earth to add to the security and warmth within. A small charcoal fire surrounded with stones added to the interior warmth. Walls of sleeping houses not seen from the exterior were usually of tree-fern logs set upright as these minimised the risk of fire.

The first settlers appear to have introduced the oval and circular types of Polynesian houses, modified to suit local conditions. The oval house had sometimes a porch attached (Phillipps, 1952). This house persisted right down to the end of last century among the muttonbirders of the South Island.

In the Classic Maori period, which followed the migration of 1350, rectangular houses became better established while, in the North Island, circular and oval houses were gradually relegated for use as kitchens, storehouses for implements, and the like. In the South Island oval sleeping houses persisted until the arrival of Europeans. All rectangular houses had two main upright poles which supported the ridge pole or tahu. From the ridge pole depended the rafters (heke), which were supported below by main wall slabs (poupou), securely sunk in the ground. With the earth well piled up at the sides, such a house was known as a wharepuni or warm house. Larger houses of assembly gradually developed. These were used for tribal gatherings, etc., but were not common until after European contact when steel tools were used for felling trees and working timber. Such houses were whare runanga. Many were ornamented with carving, while spaces between the poupou were filled with ornamental panels of tuku-tuku designs.

Kitchens were for the most part primitive structures barely adequate to keep out the rain, though in large communities log houses were built, the logs being usually of mamaku (Cyathea medullaris), while in others logs were placed horizontally and used as required for fuel. Less consideration was accorded to cooks and those concerned with the preparation of food than to any other section of the community. As food destroyed the tapu of man, kitchens were established well away from the houses of chiefs. All food was consumed outside dwellings in the open air. It was usual to have two meals per day, the main meal being in the evening. In the kitchen was the earth oven, or umu, also known as hangi, a pit some 3 to 4 ft in diameter and up to 18 in. deep. Quantities of wood, large and small, were piled in the pit, and selected oven stones (taikowhatu) were spread over the wood. As the wood burnt, the stones became heated and gradually sank into the oven cavity. Embers were raked aside and the stones levelled out, some being put aside for placing on top of the food when it was arranged in the pit. The pit was liberally soused with water; quantities of green stuff were placed over the stones, and then food such as kumara and fish, and greens such as sow thistle, were arranged in alternate layers. The hot stones set aside were then placed on top. Again liberal quantities of water were used, and a mat to cover all. On this the earth was piled. Food was ready in one and a half hours.

Mats or whariki were much used on floors of whares. Some were coarse and made of raw flax used in strips while others were plaited with finer strands of partly prepared flax, each strand passing over two others in the plaiting. The making of mats was women's work and some became specialists in this work.

Fire was produced by the friction of wood upon wood, the fire plough of Polynesia. Three trees supplied the necessary material. These were the kaikomako, (Pennantia corymbosa), makomako (Aristotelia serata) and the mahoe (Melicytus ramiflorus). The upper rubbing stick was known as hika or kaurima and the lower grooved stick as kaunoti. It was correct and customary in firemaking that a woman should steady the lower stick while a man operated the rubbing stick. In ritual ceremonies sacred fires were kindled to add mana to the proceedings.

In central Polynesia women wore a kilt and men a loin cloth termed maro or mato. These garments were brought to New Zealand by the first waves of settlers who at the outset were faced with the problem of raw material, as the paper mulberry tree was originally absent from this country. Tradition tells us that the paper mulberry tree was introduced by the Tainui canoe. Cook saw a few in the far north and others were recorded on the East Coast. No garments from such trees are known to us today. But the early settlers found an excellent substitute in the indigenous flax (Phormium tenax), and from it they plaited loin cloths as well as kilted garments. Gradually, new types of garments made their appearance. A kilt or rapaki, often thickly woven, was used by both sexes in colder weather. The so-called modern piupiu is a garment derived from this kilt which sometimes had a piupiu fringe. To meet the colder and wetter conditions of New Zealand, a rain cloak, pake, was made from tags of raw flax, partly scraped, and set in close rows attached to the muka or plaited-fibre base. Several types of capes and cloaks were also used, many of the latter enveloping the whole body.

The most common means of personal ornamentation was a red colouring for the body and parts of the face. The red colouring matter was derived from red ochre or kokowai mixed with oil secured from the livers of sharks. Sometimes garments would become saturated with this substance; but it also protected the body from the bites of insects. Hairdressing was important, wives of chiefs undertaking this important task. It was usual for the hair to be drawn up well back from the face to form a topknot (tikitiki) on the crown of the head. In the topknot, feathers of birds such as the huia, the long-tailed cuckoo, the heron, etc., were worn. Ornamental combs of bone or wood were sometimes added.

The storing of feathers led in New Zealand to the construction of special boxes for their reception. Some of these were uncarved, but many were carved in more or less elaborate fashion. Such wooden receptacles shared with the canoe the name of waka, and were termed waka huia. Valuables such as greenstone ornaments and necklaces might also be stored in these waka. It is of interest to note that some of the finest of the carved waka huia come from North Auckland.

Ear ornaments were of a variety of types, the most prized being the elongate greenstone pendants, the straight forms being termed kurukuru and those bent at the end, kapeu. Some other forms were the poria kaka, the ring used on a tame parrot's leg; the matau, a hook form, and the koropepe, an eellike form. Common people contented themselves with the use of birds' wings and bright sea shells or parts thereof.

It is possible that many Maori pendants, in particular the greenstone tiki, were worn in order to obtain some magical benefit. The tiki most prized as a breast ornament is carved in the fashion of a depressed human form, the head being bent to one side; but its characteristics are common to the Maori carvings of last century. The tiki is said to be so named after Tiki, the traditional name of the first man created by Tane. Important tiki might be handed down through many generations.

Muka, the fibre of the flax plant, was dressed by the use of a marine shell, much scraping and scutching ensuing before the fibre was washed and pounded. Stone pounders (patu muka) were used to soften the fibre. Weaving sticks (turuturu) were in pairs. In making large cloaks two pairs were necessary to keep the operative edge at the correct height. The most simple method of garment making was that also adopted in the manufacture of fish traps, namely, single-pair twining. Weaving sticks were stuck in the ground and between them were stretched the weaving elements, vertical and horizontal. A two-pair weft technique was developed in New Zealand and used for all superior garments.

Men's belts were known as tatua and women's as tu. The man's belt was the more ornate, a common form being the tatua pupara in which the plaited fabric was doubled over and the two edges loosely sewn together, a task for the bone needle.