Oct 2, 2020

Sidestep: Those sprung from the earth

The Aborigine, the Indigenous, those native to... the Maruiwi and the Urukehu, and whatever other name they go by...

On 9th September 1931, Elsdon Best died. It was written of him by someone from Tuhoe – “Te Pēhi (as he was known to his beloved Tuhoe) lived with our people amidst their comparatively primitive surroundings, and during this period of voluntary exile amongst them, he carefully, quietly, but earnestly and intensively studied every department of their life. He did all this great work without ostentation or fanfare of trumpets. This faculty of modesty seems inherent in all great minds. He was a most careful observer and painstaking recorder of facts. Like an honest scientist, he placed stern restraint upon his high imaginative faculty in the interest of truth. He hesitated to generalize upon the subject of the Maori. He preferred to be a plain recorder of facts concerning the Maori race, and no more. This is very evident in his literary contributions. It is for the scientist of the future to draw weighty conclusions from the evidence Elsdon Best has accumulated. For such a scientist to succeed and not cause pain to the immortal soul that now dwells in the Holy Courts of Io-taketake (Io the Eternal) he must address himself to his subject in the same spirit of honesty, sincerity, humility, and patience.”

Elsdon Best had no agenda. He wrote what he observed, heard or was told by the old Maori elders he talked with. The fact there was an aboriginal race here before the migrations from Polynesia occurred was a given to all back then- only now has it hidden by those with an agenda. Best’s accounts just state facts, there is no judgement in his descriptions of the demise of the original people; just the fact it occurred is recorded, not only where, but by whom. It clearly records, without Best’s judgement, that those we now know as Maori (Polynesian) destroyed the original people, the aborigines, the true tangata whenua.

He even draws conclusion about their origins from observation, although the characteristics are not 100%, as even the tangata whenua were of mixed race over a very long period of time including those here who survived the Taupo eruptions of 181AD (1837 years ago) and possibly 1320BC (3338 years ago) because there are stone implements of sandstone, graywackle and granite, as well as bone barb points - from three different groups of people. There is also the human footprints in mudstone near where they found the dinosaur prints in Golden Bay.

In the 1960's Russell Price published an account near Taupo of finding human occupation layers below the pumice bands of the 1320BC eruption. As his suggestion was most provocative, he was quickly discredited even though they could not come up with a plausible explanation as to why remains were under the pumice layer. Later publications discredited Price. There is no way to prove nor disprove anyones intent on discrediting with his site. But a tribe/family of 8’ non-Polynesian skeletons? No one can explain that away!

This island, though of different shape and shores, was inhabited long ago and scattered groups already lived here when Polynesians first arrived. There is no public recorded evidence of such – but there is, and much of it is within this website if you haven’t already looked and followed us for the last four years. But more importantly the rumor of man existing here have always been within Maori's own legends. If we finally expose the 8' skeletons we seek, what will people do? It certainly will not be politically correct - therefore, as with Russell Price, the find will be discredited. Unless it can't be discredited! We have that part sorted. But will academics and political Maori then agree the real history is not as what has been taught by those claiming to be the first? If possession is the key to land rights, then proof of prior races here before the warlike Polynesian arrived needs addressing too – only if they can be conclusively proved to have existed before and during Polynesians early influx. For if they were, they are the true tangata whenua in both the physical and spiritual manner and older than the kauri.

Below are excerpts of articles written by various writers. Take from them what you will, but note them as a whole (along with Maoris’ own stories, legends and discussions with those willing to write them down.) Keep in mind the language of the day back then is a little different to what it is now and some of it acceptable then, is not acceptable now.

From Augustus Hamilton

Director of the Dominion Museum, Wellington

"There is a ‘possibility’ that the early inhabitants were more Melanesian than Polynesian. Lullabies are peculiar to the Maoris, as is the leaping and acrobatic energy displayed in the Maori haka. Both the foregoing are strange to Polynesia. The spirals in Maori art are a legacy from Borneo as is the tattoo on a Maori woman's chin. The protruding tongue so common to the Maori art belongs to Indonesia and the Caroline group. The question can well be asked, "Did the Maori of New Zealand revert to a former art derived prior to the arrival at Tahiti or Rarotonga in the journey through the Pacific, or did he learn from a Melanesian strain already in New Zealand when he came here?"

From J MacMillan Brown

in his book

MAORI AND POLYNESIAN: THEIR ORIGIN, HISTORY AND CULTURE

There are even cases of a cross with a blonde Caucasian race amongst the Maoris, and especially amongst the Ureweras, who have seen little of Europeans till lately; the urukehu, or red-headed, families and individuals are not infrequent, and the red-head is generally accepted as an indication of a cross between a blonde and brunette race, whilst it is acknowledged that this tribe, not long after arriving in the Matatua canoe, passed inland to the highlands round Lake Waikaremoana, and, struggling with the inhabitants of the mountain and forest land, ultimately amalgamated with them. In that other long-isolated district, the King Country, near the harbour of Kawhia, there are many of these rufous people, and, at the same time, the tribes there speak of their ancestors, the immigrants of the Tainui canoe, amalgamating with the aboriginals, the Ngatimokotorea. And they say that in the fore part of the Tainui a fairy woman called Te Peri had command. The aboriginals of the Ureweras are called by them the Toi; and Mr. Elsdon Best quotes a Maori description of this primitive people as peaceful and good, a contrast to the restless warriors that had come in amongst them from Polynesia.

In the book by W. A. TAYLOR

(forwarded by Roger Duff)

Lore and history of the South Island Maori

“Tradition obtained in the North Island of New Zealand, and a few rare objects found would point to the latter. Herewini Ira of Moeraki, Tame Parata, and Tikao and other intelligent Maoris of the South Island have referred to descent from a tribe in the South Island, darker than the Maori, with curly hair and a different language. It is a most intricate subject to deal with inasmuch as many stories are common to Melanesia and Polynesia, and the names of heroes are entwined to a remarkable degree.

It is possible that the fabled Kiwa was a voyager to New Zealand two thousand years ago, as among the Maoris of the South Island a very dark-skinned individual is called a son of Kiwa, not the Kiwa of many centuries later. Ui te Rangiora is said to have visited New Zealand from Fiji about 650A.D. Half a century later came Maui, in the Mahunui Canoe, and many natives of the South Island can trace a family tree to that explorer. There were several heroes of that name and of purely mythical origin.

In 850A.D. arrived Rakaihautu in the Uruao Canoe with the first Waitaha Tribe. The Hawea Tribe of the Waitaki watershed owe their descent to the Waitaha Tribe of Rakaihautu, and according to Tikao and others were a dark, curly-headed race and not brown like the Maori.

Maui the explorer is immortalised in several place names of the South Island, Mautau a Maui which is a beach on Bishop's Peninsula in the Nelson Province being one. Lakes Rotoroa and Rotoiti at the headwaters of the Buller River according to tradition were formed by Rakaihautu. Like some other South Island lakes they were delved out with his ko (spade), a fanciful way of saying he discovered them. The Rapuwai Tribe arrived in the South Island from Patea and were noted for the peculiar manner adopted in swimming.

Forty generations ago the South Island was explored by Kupe in the Matahoura Canoe. Ngahue in the Taiwiri rangi canoe also circumnavigated the South Island. From tradition it would appear the South Island was peopled before the North Island, and that would be before the arrival of Toi from Polynesia about 1125A.D. Practically all the tribes of the North Island can now trace descent from Toi, and the South Islanders also from their North Island connections. The more reliable history of the South Island is connected first with the second Waitaha Tribe who arrived at Maketu in the North Island by the Arawa Canoe of the Great Migration of 1350A.D. from Hawaiki. Settling in Poverty Bay they finally came to the South Island in the Takitimu Canoe under Tamatea. They are said to have multiplied exceedingly, and were of fairer skin than the other arrivals. In the South Island they were displaced by the Ngati Mamoe whose main ancestry connects with the Tokomaru Canoe. The present principal tribe of the South Island the Ngai Tahu connects up with arrivals by the Takitemu, Kurahaupo and Mata horua Canoes.

The Ngati Mamoe and the second Waitaha Tribe have been loosely referred to as Morioris. The Morioris who went from the South Island to the Chatham Islands over 1000 years ago were actually more Polynesian than the Maori, so we must look further back than the days of Toi in New Zealand to pick up the Melanesian tar brush.”

Elsdon Best

“Maru-iwi: Te Heke a Maru-iwi ki te Po” (“The Descent of Maru-iwi to the Shadows)

“The Maru-iwi were one of the aboriginal tribes of New Zealand, and originally occupied the valley of the Wai-mana River, where they had many a fortified pa, the principal one being -Ma-pou-riki. The whole land was occupied by the tribes of the tangata whenua whose ancestors held these lands long before the historical vessels came from the Hawaikian Fatherland, which lies far away, across the great Ocean of Kiwa. When the ancestors of the present Maori people became numerous in Ao-tea-roa [New Zealand], then wars arose between the two races, and many battles took place, and the long peace of the Great White World was broken at last. Then was known the evil which comes with war and strife. The clash of arms was heard in the old-time homes of Te-tini-o-toi, the sound of the war-trumpets echoed far and wide, the rivers and lands of the descendants of Maui were stained with the blood of Maru-iwi and Te Maranga-ranga, of Te Po-kiki and Te PO-kaka. Maru-ka was a chief of Te Maru-iwi. He and Koira, of Ngati-awa had a long argument concerning the kumara[sweet potato

‘I have been insulted by Maru-ka, of Te Maru-iwi; yea ! even struck by that man, sir ! It is not well that this tribe should remain here.' Even so were Koira and his people enabled to expel the Maru-iwi from Wai-mana, their ancient home. And they fled—fled with a great fear upon them—far away from their well-loved homes of many generations, away to the region where the sun goes down. Far away across the White World was borne the wailing of Maru-iwi as they chanted a song of farewell to the Land of the Ancient People, for the Maori had come, the Maori of Hawaiki, of the Dark Ocean, trained to war and slaughter in the crowded isles of Polynesia.

The Maori had lived such a life in New Zealand for at least four centuries prior to the arrival of the pakeha, and here, cut off by the broad ocean from the other divisions of his race, he lived and fought and strove, crude-minded, to solve the mysteries of Nature and of human life. Savage, cruel and cannibal as he was, endowed with a mind saturated with superstition, yet the ancient Maori composed some thousands of chants which for beauty of expression can scarcely be surpassed. He evolved or at least preserved a mythology and folklore that for metaphysical reasoning, mental grasp and general interest can not he excelled by that of any Hellenic or Teutonic race. Such was the origin of all evil in this world—the strife that those beings began - and the evil descended to the men of Hawaiki, and to the time of Uenuku, and of Hou, and of Ta ma-te-kapua, and of Manaia. And in the time of the great battles which men call Ihu-motomotokia, Tarai-whenua-kura, Te Tahuna a-Tara and Maikuku-tea, these evils descended upon Aotearoa. Thus evil came to this land for the first time, for the people of Aotearoa, the tribes of Toi, were not an evil people. They dwelt in peace on the earth and lived well towards each other. Here are the tribes of the "tangata whenua" or aboriginal people of Aotearoa (New Zealand) together with the names of the ancestors from whom they sprang. I will now cease these genealogies from ancient times. The people who came from Hawaiki became mixed with the original people of this land, and the issue was numerous. Now, listen! In those distant times of the past there were tribes of strange people who dwelt in this land, people who lived on the mountains and in the forests and were not often seen by the men of the World of Light. Such people were different in appearance to our ancestors and looked like spirits or gods.

The men of Toi gazed with wonder upon the strangers and then prepared food for them. This was the only canoe of this land that went to Hawaiki to procure Kumara and there were 140 men who went in her, chief of whom was Tamaki-hikurangi. The cave where Toi-te-huatahi and Tama-ki-hiku-rangi and and Rakei-ora were buried is at Opihi. That was the burial place of our ancestors, even unto the time of their descendants, that was ever there resting-place. (in later times Putauaki became the burial-place. Another informant tells me that Toi was buried in a swamp called Te Huki-o-te-tuna near Whakatane. The number [unclear: tribes] which occupied this district is quite astonishing and it is a fact that their descendants, who now occupy the Valley of the Rangitaiki and other parts, are proud of their descent from the pre-Maori tangata whenua and never tire of extolling the virtues of the "Multitude of Toi."

Not that it should be inferred that the indigenes were not a Polynesian people for they were simply an early migration of that far reaching race. I will now give what, few notes I have collected in regard to the aboriginal people who formerly occupied the Valley of the Rangitaiki and Whirinaki. This people were known as TeTini-o-Te-Marangaranga-the multitude of the Marangaranga-and were destroyed by an invading host from the Hauraki district, under the chiefs Tangiharuru and Whare-pakau. The whence of this invading force has been a subject for discussion, but native authorities mostly agree in declaring that their original home was at Wharepuhunga, and that they left the Waikato district and journeyed to Hauraki where they remained for a time, afterwards coming on to Tauranga Matata and Rangitaiki.

It would be interesting to know how the peculiarities are derived from the ancient people of the land, peculiarities of speech, custom and appearance seen among the Tuhoe people. Whence comes the want of the pronounced nasal that obtains among these people and the many ancient words still preserved by them and not known in other parts of the land. From whence come the numerous urukehu, the fine-featured red haired people seen among the hapus of the interior, the Tama-kai-moana of Maungapohatu and the Nga-Tawhaki of Ruatahuna. From whence is derived that old-world custom which obtained in the Land of the Urewera since the days of Taneatua, and for possible centuries before that time; the worship of which is as old as the oldest race and as far spreading as the great sun myths—the custom which was probably one of the earliest forms of religion. The state of isolation in which these people have lived for many centuries has preserved the peculiarities which they probably derive from Toi.

Burial.

Karakia were used when carrying the dead to the caves where they were laid. The entrances to these caves were closed with slabs of stone so that no man might find them. It is only the tohunga who recites the incantation as he goes along.

Wars, wars and more wars (all Inter-tribal)

The bulk of the Urewera (as the Tuhoe are generally termed) reside at Ruatahuna and its vicinity, which district contains many old pas and battle-grounds. In former times they made many forays against distant tribes and thought little of marching in mid-winter across the snow-covered mountains. To enable them to do this they wore sandals (turnata-kuru) formmed of a netted fabric and stuffed with moss (rimurimu). To collect their warriors from scattered hamlets, when threatened by attack, they used the huge war trumpet (pu-tatara) and also made use of signal fires on the hilltops. A favourite proverb—"The eyes of the fisherman are closed, but tbe eye of the fighter are open"—will tend to show that it was a difficult matter to catch the Urewera unaware, and au enemy trying to surprise them at night was pretty sure to be met by the booming of the war drums (pahu). These gongs, which were formed of mataii, were suspended between two uprights upon the watch tower situated within the earthworks. The Tuhoe tribe are largely descended from the original people of the land and this combined with their long isolation in a mountainous country causes them to be a singularly interesting people and well worthy of study.

The Urukehu.

This is the most interesting and singular type to be found in New Zealand. People will tell you they are albinos. It is not so. The Urukehu of the Urewera are a white, fine featured looking people - an Aryan people. The old men inform me that they have different ways and been there, always dwelt a fear of the darker people, from remote places. Some say they are descended from the Turehu, a race of white people who originally occupied this island times long past away. In later times these Turehu appear to have observed as a species of wood elves who dwelt in forests and on mountain ranges, and were often he heard talking and singing, and who wrought tricks upon the luckless who offended them.

Maru-iwi.

The Maruiwi wore one of the aboriginal tribes of New Zealand and originally occupied the Valley of the Waimaua River where they had many fortified pas, the principal one being Mapouriki.* The whole land was occupied by the tribes of the "tangata whenua" whose ancestors held these lands long before the historical vessels came from the Hawaikian Fatherland which lies far away, across the great Ocean of Kiwa. When the ancestors of the present Maori people became numerous in Aotearoa then wars arose between the two races and many battles took place, and the long peace was broken at last. Then was known the evil which comes with war and strife. The clash of arms was heard in the old time homes of Te Tini-o-Toi, the sound of the war trumpets echoed far and wide, the rivers and lands of the descendants of Maui were stained with the blood of Maruiwi and Te Marangaranga, of Te Po-kiki and Te Pokaka. Those few survivors of Maruiwi fled onwards to Wairarapa and to the Land of the Pounamu, and their name is lost to the World of Life and no man may know their descendants.