Sidestep: Fortified Pa
Where did the Maori get the idea of defensive Pa’s. What is obvious is that they were a fighting people, but where did the idea of complex defences come from?
The Pa is not known in Polynesia except in Fijian hilltop forts - yet Fiji and NZ have never had a link. There are thousands of fortified Pa's yet they are distinct to NZ. Why? If Maori came from Polynesia why would they produce something they had never seen before? Why would they even be fighting among themselves? (Let's not get too far into that one just yet).
Those are Marquesas and Rapa Island cannot be compared to Maori Pa. Pa means “to obstruct, to block up.” It is a defensive work and so a fortified village is termed a pa. An open village, having no defensive works, is styled a kainga, a word also used as meaning “place of residence, home.” In olden days a community often dwelt in both these forms of village. Near the fortified village would be situated an open one in which many of the people dwelt. When alarmed by the advance of an enemy force the residents of the kainga would retire to the protection of the pa, taking with them their chattels and any food supplies handy.
Tongan forts were a borrowed usage from Fiji. There was a close resemblance between the various devices of the pa Maori of New Zealand and those of the hill forts of Fiji.
The important part of this is that Maori were at war with each other on a constant basis long before any European contact...long before. 'Maori' never were a united people. more of a fragmented collection of tribes in contact disagreement between themselves. They only used the term Maori to distinguish themselves from the European as a race and called themselves tangata Maori (common people).
Most often the 'war' was more of a skirmish as no one tribe had the upper hand with weapons, though they may have had the upper hand in numbers. A strong tribe could annihilate a smaller one. This is why many tribes who trace their beginnings to a certain place in Aotearoa were elsewhere by the time the Treaty was signed. This is why Ngai Tahu were not found in the North Island by the time the Cook arrived. But why did they fight so often. I have my theories and you can read about them here.
Maori are often referred to as warriors in pre-contact times. They were fearless, brave and cunning. Nowadays the Maori male has little voice, they abandon their families and many Maori women bring up the children on their own. Maori men do not know how as they have few role models for fatherhood. What has this got to do with Pa? Pa were to defend, and I see little of any sort of defense of Maori children and families by Maori men. The women do most of it and many have become the warrior instead. In fact this new phenomenon is race wide and worldwide.
But delving deeper...why build Pa at all? Because Maori were not a peaceful people. Few races are. Being chased out of their pacific homeland for breaking the rules, these people struggled when they first arrived. Wairau Bar skeletal remains prove they had a hard time of it. They were not a victorious and proud people sailing across the ocean and landing with full bellies and photos of the journey. They landed with relief, some lucky to be alive. They were not exploring - at least not these ones - they were escaping with their lives and their new religion, and they brought with them what had caused them to be banished...their attitude. I agreed that this is a theory, but what could explain a people arriving, wiping out those here, and still fighting among themselves - lest what is inside them is not peaceful?. Why are Maori so quick to anger today? Today? They always were but to be fair Europans often crossed the lines they did not know existed. Utu was a way of life!
But back to pre-contact days. Back then, they were still angry. They still provoked each other. They still raided each other just like any colour or race around the world have at one time or other. Maori took lands, fought battles, took slaves, kept slaves, ate slaves, and killed any they had become tired of. That included children, which Associate Professor Leonie Pihama needs to be reminded of if you know of her recent claim. Maori were always victims of themselves before they were ever victims of anyone else. It just became a way of life.
But that still doesn't explain where they got the idea from. No early hilltop kainga were fortified, only those since about 1650 when things deteriorated within Aotearoa. Conflict must have been so severe, so constant and so bloody, that the Pa was created out of a desperate necessity.
With this type of attitude it is little wonder than little is left in evidence of those already here before the Polynesian immigrants arrived here. When you take something over you often destroy evidence of it. All cultures have done this. Isis are trying to do it now. But soon evidence of a group that existed before Polynesian arrivals will appear and create angst. And I mean anger...the same seething anger we often see now mostly in a verbal sense. Anger from some at being found out? Anger than what was buried is no longer hidden? Anger by some at not being told the truth by their Manukura? Anger is ok, How it's dealt with is another matter.
Only rapid spread the evidence will prevent it being shut down as many have tried to do (mostly successfully) up until now. In that sense we have a Pa of our own. It is not a physical one but something able to repel what will undoubtedly come. But this Pa is not just defensive, once attacked, the kuwaha will open, but none will get inside. Instead, that which attacks it will regret having done so. Is this a philosophical threat then? No - it is just stating what must happen due to the nature of the ones opposed to what will be exposed. It is a time that must come. Maori call it āmua.
