The occupation of Moutoa Gardens in 1995 highlighted efforts by Whanganui iwi to draw attention to the non-settlement of long-standing land grievances arising out of land confiscations by the Crown in New Zealand in the 1860s. Maori attitudes to land have not been well understood by successive New Zealand governments since that time, nor by many Pakeha New Zealanders. In an effort to overcome that lack of understanding, this thesis studies a particular genre of Maori composition; namely, waiata tangi or songs of lament, which contain a strong indigenous sense of place component. The waiata used in this study derive from my tribal area of Taranaki, which is linked historically and through whakapapa with Whanganui iwi. These waiata were recorded in manuscript form in the 1890s by my great-grandfather Te Kahui Kararehe, and are a good source from which to draw conclusions about the traditional nature of Maori feelings for place. Two strands run throughout this thesis. The first examines the nature of Maori feelings for place and land, which have endured through primary socialisation to the present day. By focusing upon a form of expression that reveals the attachment of Maori towards their ancestral homelands, it is hoped that the largely monocultural Pakeha majority in New Zealand will be made aware of that attachment. It is also hoped that Pakeha may be suitably informed of the consequences of colonialist intervention in the affairs of the Maori people since 1840, which have resulted in cultural deprivation and material disadvantage at the present day. In the current climate of government moves to address the problems bequeathed them by their predecessors, it is important that the settlement of land claims and waterways under the Treaty of Waitangi should proceed unhindered by misapprehension and misinformation on the part of the public at large. The second strand of my thesis concerns the waiata texts themselves, which I wish to bring to the attention of the descendants of the composers of those waiata, who may or may not know of their existence. Since so much of value has been lost to the Maori world it is important that the culturally precious items that remain should be restored as soon as possible to those to whom they rightfully belong. Key themes examined in this thesis are the nature of Maori "feelings" for place and a "sense" of place; Maori research methodologies and considerations, including Maori cosmology and genealogical lines of descent; ethical concerns and intellectual property rights; ethnographic writings from the nineteenth century which tried to make sense of Maori imagery and habits of thought; the Kahui Papers from which the waiata were drawn; and the content and imagery of the waiata themselves. I also discuss the use of hermeneutics as a methodological device for unlocking the meanings of words and references in the waiata, and present the results both from a western sense of place perspective and a Maori viewpoint based on cultural concepts and understandings.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/285831 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Smith, Ailsa Lorraine |
| Publisher | Lincoln University |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://purl.org/net/lulib/thesisrights |
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