Maori Resources

Te Uru Magazine cover image March 2009 - Click to read

Te Uru magazine

Te Uru, Maori for ‘the West’, is a quarterly newsletter produced by Te Paparewa a Uru, the Council’s Maori Relationships Team. Te Uru highlights some of the activities taking place in the Waitakere Maori community, including some of the work the Council is involved with.

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Te Uru - March 2009 (Size 4404K)

Official Government Publications

Official government publications are of great value to Maori as they contain a number of important resources, such as whakapapa (genealogies), speeches from Maori leaders, tribal histories and much more. Listed below are a few from our collection:

Appendices to Journals of the House of Representatives (AJHR)

The appendices to these government documents are a treasure trove of information and an excellent resource for historians and genealogists. They include such things as photographs of Ohinemutu Pa and Whakarewarewa. Published since the 1850s, the journals contain reports from Government departments and commissions, including petitions and letters from Maori and reports on the sale and confiscation of tribal land. The most useful information is found in the early volumes, pre 1888.

Parliamentary Debates

Debates and speeches recorded from Parliament since 1854.

New Zealand Gazette

Printed weekly since 1840, the gazette contains proclamations and official notes of the Government and a variety of supplements, including a list of professionals, such as doctors and engineers.

Te Haurapa

Te Haurapa is a guide that gives an excellent introduction to researching tribal histories and traditions. There are guidelines to help Maori understand how archives and libraries are used and how to source important material from them, such as the Maori Land Court minutes, appendices to journals, contents of the Raupatu (Confiscations) Document Bank, land deeds, tribal histories and much more.

Newspapers and Periodicals

These contain vast amounts of information concerning historical events. For example, the newspaper Te Karere Maori o Niu Tireni devoted entire issues to reporting the major hui at Kohimarama in 1860. Other hui and events, such as wars, obituaries of leaders and discussion of government policy were featured in the government newspaper.

Tribes and pan-tribal groups and movements also had their own periodicals and newspapers. The King Movement published Te Hokioi and continues to publish Te Paki o Matariki, the Ratana Church published Te Whetumarama o Te Ata and the Kotahitanga (Maori Parliaments) of the 1890s published their own journals.

More than 20 modern Maori magazines and newspapers, such as Mana Magazine and Nga iwi o Aotearoa, are also available at Waitakere Libraries.  The Journal of the Polynesian Society was established in 1892 and its journal is still published today. Maori contributors have included Sir Peter Buck, Sir Apirana Ngata, Henare Potae, Hoani Nahe, Hamiora Pio and Pei Te Hurinui Jones. Subjects include tribal histories, dialects of the Maori language, artefacts, crafts and cosmology.

Tribal Histories

Over the last 100 years, tribal histories have been written and published with varying involvement by Maori experts. Real authorship belongs to the tribal experts that writers received knowledge from.

Tupuna Maori (Maori ancestors) quickly understood the power of the written word, and began writing letters, journals, diaries and recorded events as part of their heritage. It was important for Maori to record these histories, as the old lore of the whare wananga (traditional school of higher-learning) was slowly diminishing.

Tribal histories include genealogies, waiata (songs), wars, inter-marriages, customs and much more. It is well known that Tupuna Maori were far more literate then the Pakeha of the 1830s-50s. There are many titles available from New Zealand's traditional tribal areas, some of which include:

• Taitokerau: The Puriri Trees are Laughing; Nga iwi o Te Taitokerau; Karanga Hokianga

• Tamaki Makaurau/Hauraki: Maori Auckland; West Auckland Remembers; The History of Howick and Pakuranga

• Tainui: Nga iwi o Tainui; Potatau; Tainui

• Rotorua/Taupo: Tuwhare toa; Te Arawa; Place Names of the Geothermal Regions

• Taranaki/Wanganui: Nga Mahi Whakaari a Titokowaru; Maori Life in Old Taranaki; Old Whanganui

• Tairawhiti: Wairehu; Whakatohea of Opotiki; Tuhoe; Redemption Songs

• Wairarapa/Whanganui: Takitimu; An Old New Zealander Te Rauparaha; The Kapiti Coast

• Te Waka a Maui: Maori Place Names of Canterbury; Songs of Waitaha; Tikao Talks

Other key books on Maori histories and customs:

• Coming of the Maori - Te Rangihiroa (Sir Peter Buck)

• The Old time Maori - Makereti (Maggie) Papakura

• Carved Histories - Rogar Neich

• The Maori - Elston Best

• Maori myths and legends - Margaret Orbell

• Maori Art - A. Hamilton

• Nga Moteatea - Sir Apirana Ngata and Pei Te Hurinui Jones

• Nga Pepeha o nga Tipuna - Hirini Mead

Local History Photos

Photographed in 1890, Whakaari, (now known as Lion Rock), was a fortified pa (village) to the local iwi, Te Kawerau a Maki. It is one of many thousands of photos in Waitakere Libraries' local history collection.

Maori and War

The art of war, as practised by Maori prior to European settlement is documented in a number of useful publications.

Taylor's A bibliography of publications on the New Zealand Maori and the Moriori of the Chatham Islands includes a large number of references to the construction of defensive pa, weaponry and tactics.

Also useful are Elsdon Best's Notes on the art of war (also found under the search topic of Tribal Histories), James Cowan's two volumes of The New Zealand Wars: a history of the Maori campaigns and the pioneering period and James Belichs The New Zealand Wars.

In modern times, the story of participation by Maori in the two World Wars is recorded in the following: Chris Pugsley's Te Hokowhitu a Tu: the Maori Pioneer Battalion in the First World War, James Cowan's The Maoris in the Great War (which covers both Gallipoli, France and Flanders) and J.F Cody's 28 (Maori) Battalion.

To search for these in Waitakere Libraries catalogue use: World War I, 1914-1918; World War II, 1939-1945; and Maori - Warfare.

Maori Land Court Minutes

Te Kooti Whenua Maori - the Native (later Maori) Land Courts - were established by the Government in 1865 to investigate disputes over Maori land ownership.

The courts have become infamous for their part in the alienation of enormous amounts of tribal land. Under British Law, no land could be sold without the consent of the owners. In New Zealand this caused considerable problems for Pakeha land buyers, as all tribal land was owned communally. The Land Courts were set up to establish the ownership of tracts of land and to enable the assignment of the land to individual owners. Counter-claims were also dealt with in the Land Courts.

One positive legacy of the Land Courts are their minute books, which contain a wealth of information. Claimants submitted their evidence in the form of tribal histories and traditions, all of which were recorded, usually in Maori

Useful Links

Treaty of Waitangi

Waitangi Tribunal