I received a very interesting comment on my last post regarding legal protection of Haka – Maori traditional dance. Mike McGawin from Windy Hilltops blog expressed a very interesting point of view on this issue. I would like to post Mike’s comment as a separate post so more of my readers would notice it. Personally I tend to agree with many of what Mike says but not everything.

I know it may not be the popular opinion (esp in NZ), but somehow this whole thing just feels wrong to me. Copyright infringement isn’t stealing and it shouldn’t be confused with stealing. It’s copyright infringement. (i.e. If you make a copy of my writing, I still have it… as opposed to if you steal my pen and paper then I no longer have either of them.) Copyright law was designed for a specific purpose to do with promoting creativity by giving creators a temporary monopoly, and it’s supposed to expire so that other people can continue to build on existing creative works for the benefit of everyone. It’s not supposed to protect information forever, though a few large media studios would love it if it did, and are happy to buy off as many lawmakers as they can to try and achieve this.

But what I’m very uncomfortable about is that some Maori people are doing this with the intent if preventing people from “mis-using” the haka. That’s not what the semantic idea of copyright is supposed to be for. Without even having had any sort of arrangement or contract or treaty with nearly anyone except the British Crown, the intent seems to be to somehow try and leverage a legal technicality throughout the world that has nothing to do with what Maori people actually want. I don’t think Maori people should be allowed to control how French people mock New Zealand any more than I think French people should be allowed to control how New Zealanders mock France. I can’t imagine how it’s actually going to work or reliably hold up in the long term. If it’s possible to protect the haka through copyright then I suppose there must be some kind of legal technicality, but by any copyright laws I understand, any copyright on Ka Mate should have expired well over 100 years ago!

I sympathize that some people may find it discomforting when others satirize or misrepresent their culture and beliefs, but I do think it’s important to be able to take it on the chin and just accept that not everyone will respect you. Outside NZ people get so riled up that they fight wars and kill each other over others satirizing their beliefs and ideals. We’re fortunate that we live in a relatively peaceful country and I’m certainly not trying to imply that any Maori people would ever go so far, but in my opinion trying to suppress satire shouldn’t be acceptable when it can simply be ignored. It’s part of free expression and it goes both ways for mutual benefit to everyone. Maori culture will always be what it is, no matter how many times ignorant people perform an embarrassing fake haka in stupid gingerbread costumes. Anyone who wants to learn about the real culture can always find out about it any time they want to.

My two cents.

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It was officially recognized that Ka Mate was composed by Maori leader Te Rauparaha in order to celebrate the rescue of a soldier from death in battle, which took place in 1820.

Obtaining the copyrights by Maori in many ways is merely symbolic, but it is very important for Maori leaders. Members of the tribe will not be able to claim any cash for violations of their copyrights, but from now on improper use of Haka for commercial purposes is prohibited.

The main purpose of this copyright is to prevent theft and «wrong» performance of Haka, as it happened, for example, in 2006.

Back then Fiat automotive company had issued a series of commercials in which Haka was performed by Italian wemen. While, according to Maori, this type of Haka dance is performed only by men.
Another scandal about the use of Haka took place in 2007. During the ceremony in which awards for the best bakery were given, Haka was performed by men, dressed in gingerbread comic outfits.

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photo by jakesmome

Personally, I don’t recommend this type of transportation, but some people who don’t mind wasting their time while waiting for a ride, or having a super limited budget may find it useful.

Remember that having a lot of baggage with you will reduce your chances to catch a ride. I should also point out that many people think that New Zealand is a very safe country. This is not exactly true. There is crime in NZ, so this also should be taken into consideration when you think of hitchhiking, especially if you are young woman traveling alone.

One more thing you should know before deciding on this type of transportation – hitchhiking on motorways is illegal, and it is also illegal for vehicles to stop on the side of the motorway, only for emergencies.

In any case, whether you decide to hitchhike or not, I am wishing you a joyful and safe journey!

In my blog I wrote many articles about Maori mythology, their customs and traditions, but what is happening to Maori now? How did they adjust to living with Europeans and all this modern world?

So here are some “contemporary” facts about Maori people.

Population

According to Statistics New Zealand Maori population as of June 2007 stood at 632,900 people, 310,200 of which are male and 322,700 are female. This represents 14.7 percent from total New
Zealand’s population (which stands now at 4,288,090). The forecast is that Maori population will reach 16.6% at year 2021.

Nowadays most of Maori people live in urban areas, with only small part living in rural areas, and also many live outside of New Zealand – about 70,000 live in Australia and about 10,000 live in Britain.

Language
The Maori language is an official language of New Zealand, but not many people can speak it even among Maori themselves. Nowadays effort is being made to revive the Maori language. Places are named with Maori names and original Maori names mostly aren’t being changed.

Problems
Maori are facing many problems in modern time – they have higher unemployment rates than other cultures living in New Zealand, and only about 47% of Maori school-leavers finish school with qualifications higher than NCEA Level One (compared to 74% European and 87% Asian). Maori also suffer more health, alcohol and drug related problems than any other culture living in New Zealand.

Maori youth always had a difficult time keeping connected with the traditional Maoritanga culture and thus “imported” mainstream cultural icons, identities, and lifestyles. Many Maori kids took after the African American hip hop culture. But in recent time many efforts are being made to bring Maori youth back to their roots and heritage.

Personally I had a very good experience with Maori people, all the Maoris I met in New Zealand were very friendly and nice.

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Mythical Monsters

Along with various gods Maori acknowledged additional various forces. Some of them were associated with different Maori tribes and territories, others were family keepers and held the guarding responsibilities (kaitiaki), warning about dangers. Most of the Maori tribes had things identified with mythical monsters, such as timber or sailing heap of grass. These things were untouchable and were avoided. According to Maori beliefs many monsters lived at the deep of rivers and lakes, some of them were considered good and some evil.
The spirits (wairua) could also be good or evil. The died person who wasn’t buried properly, and hence didn’t join his ancestors became a wandering spirit tormenting his living descendants until the proper ceremonies are performed. The spirits of miscarried babies were also considered troubled and evil.

The Creation of the World

Ancient Maori philosophers devoted a great deal of thought to the beginning of the world, and expressed their beliefs in songs. One of these songs tells about the time before the creation, the time of Nothingness – Te Kore, after which came the time of possible existence – Te Korekore, and the came the time of deep darkness – Te Po. Finally the darkness was defeated and the world of light was created – Te Aomarama. Maori sang this song long before first Europeans set foot on New Zealand. This song is among origins to Maori concept – trinity of the Universe: The Sky (Te Rangi), The Light (Te Ao-marama), and the deep darkness, the world of the dead (Te Po).

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The beginning of this ceremony is believed to be in one of Maori legends, in which gods made a woman from earth, and god Tane (in translation from Maori Tane means Male) breathed life into her through the nostrils. She then sneezed and came to life. Her name was Hineahuone, which means “earth formed woman”.
After the visitor is greeted, and for the remainder of his stay, he is obliged to share in all the responsibilities of the hosts.
What a beautiful and tender greeting! It says a lot about the whole Maori nation.

Maui remained with his parents in the underground world, and soon began to notice strange things that aroused his curiosity and pushed him towards his next feat. It turned out that most of the food in the underground world was given to Grandmother. Once Maui went to visit her, and while being there traded from Grandmother magic Jaw in exchange for food. Grandmother felt that her grandchild isn’t a usual mortal and decided that Maui will need this magic Jaw in his future feats. Without her magic Jaw Grandmother couldn’t eat so much and this is how the underworld was freed from its burden.
Years went by and Maui grew up to be a man. He married a woman from upper world, lived and worked in the village together with his brothers. But in the upper world too, his sharp mind wouldn’t let him to live a normal life.

Slowing the Sun down

People in the upper world suffered from short days – the sun was going to quickly through the skies and people couldn’t do all their chores in the short time of daylight. But no one could even think that this could be changed. Together with his brothers Maui noosed the Sun and began hitting it with the magic Jaw he got from his Grandmother. Finally Sun begged him to stop, and since then, weakened, Sun slowly moves in the sky making the day much longer.

Harnessing the Fire

Once Maui started thinking about fire; He thought where did it come from and how can he make it when needed. He discovered that only his mother new the source of fire, but she didn’t tell anyone. So Maui decided to destroy all the fires, leaving his mother no choice but to create a new fire. She decided to send a messenger to Mahuika, the goddess of fire who lived in the underground world. Maui volunteered to be that messenger, and quickly reached the house of the goddess. She was glad to meet Maui of whom she heard great stories, and agreed to give him the source of fire – one of her fingernails. But Maui wanted to discover the very secret of fire, and he came back again and again and eventually took all Mahuika’s fingernails. Mahuika became furious, fire has raged in her house. Maui transformed himself into a falcon and fled, but fire still left marks on his feathers (and since then all falcons have some brown feathers as if they were burned). The fire that resulted from Mahuika’s rage was going wild everywhere – in the air, water, and on the land. It seemed as if the fire would soon consume the whole world. Then Maui began to pray to his ancestors, gods of rain, and they extinguished the fire by pouring great amounts of rain. Only a few sparks were left in bark of trees. This eventually benefited people as they learned to extract fire by rubbing wood. Since then people can make fire whenever they want to.

Attempt at Immortality

Years went by, and Maui grew old. He was still cheerful, but in his hare appeared a few silver strings and his sons reached adulthood. To relieve him from the shame of his sons’ tricks, Maui has thrown both of them to the sky – one became the Morning Star and the other became the Evening Star. Maui’s older brother asked Maui to do the same for him and became the Polar Star and since then Maui’s sons and brother give light and joy to people on earth.

Sun moved slowly through the sky reminding Maui of the feat from his youth. Maui lived on the land that he brought from ocean depths; in the evenings he ate food cooked on the fire that he brought from Mahuika. His friend and relatives never forgot about his feats and waited for new ones. Being an old man Maui conceived the greatest feat of all – he decided to defeat the goddess of death, Hine-nui-te-po so that people would become immortal. Maui jumped into her throat to cut it from inside, so that only his tattooed legs were hanging outside. The sight of his legs making odd moves caused wagtail to laugh loudly (this wagtail was one of the birds that Maui called to help him in his feat). Hine woke up and closed his teeth on Maui bringing him to his death. The whole day and night sad birds were quiet grieving Maui. But eventually they forgot about him because life is too short to spend on grief, and death is like a deep sleep that comes down on everyone when they get tired.

This beautiful story was told during ages from father to son and reached our time. I hope you liked it.

Rotorua Maori Hangi and Concert

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This article is about the most important figure in New Zealand’s mythology.  Do you know who it was?

In one of my previous articles titled “New Zealand – One Big Volcano?” I already mentioned Maui. New Zealand’s ancient history is rich in myths and legends, but Maui clearly stands out from all other mythological characters.

Before telling more about Maui from Maori mythology, I should say that Maui is famous figure in all-Polynesian mythology and legends about him are told almost on every Polynesian land. In some legends he is regarded as demigod, in others he is fully divine, and yet in other myths Maui is human. But in this article I am interested in Maui as he appears in Maori mythology.

Maui is a demigod; he is kind, inquisitive, hardworking, courageous, loving, caring not only about his relatives, but also about all mankind. Thanks to Maui New Zealand was formed, tribes received fire, day became longer, and stars appeared on the sky.  Maui even courageously tried to relieve of death all that has life on earth, but died tragically in this battle.

Maui’s Biography

Birth

Cradle made from seaweed was drifting on the waves in the middle of endless ocean. A baby was lying in that cradle, and nothing except from the seaweed protected it from birds and marine predators. This baby was Maui, wrapped up in the hair of his mother Taranga (For some reason legends don’t tell us how cradle has appeared in the ocean in the first place. Maybe Maui’s brothers had something to do with this or it was just a Fate). Eventually sea cast the cradle ashore. Seaweed has dried, ceasing to protect the baby, and then birds grew bolder and began attacking the child bringing him to tears. An ancient god Tama (his full name was Tama-nui-ki-te-rangi, and he is also known as Rangi) heard the baby cry, descended to earth and took Maui to his home. This was the first adventure in Maui’s life.

Growing Up

Maui grew up, Tama shared his wisdom with the boy teaching him habits and language of birds, secrets of fishing and various magic spells. At some point Maui found out about his family and decided to get back to them. Tama sadly let the boy go prophesying him a lot of adventures, feats, glory and long memory in hearts of people. Wise Tama already knew that Maui won’t win his last battle, but he also knew that it wouldn’t diminish the gratitude from people.

Meeting Mother

After walking several miles Maui saw a hut and felt that his mother is inside. He looked through the window inside and saw his brothers and mother dancing. Maui quietly stepped inside and joined the dancing. When they noticed him, Maui told his story and his family named him Maui-the-girdle-of-Taranga. Maui’s appearance in the family became a real punishment for his four brothers – he was luckier and more successful in everything he did: kite flying, running, throwing a dart, diving. When the annoyed brothers wanted to teach him a lesson, Maui used spell that he learned from Tama and escaped them as a bird.

Meeting Father

Only one thought disturbed Maui: he never saw his father. Every evening Maui fell asleep beside his mother, but when we awoke in the morning his mother was gone, returning only in the evening. When Maui asked his brothers where Mother goes every day, they told him that it has never interested them, and Maui decided to find out by himself. He did a trick – when everybody fell asleep he closed all the windows so that sunlight wouldn’t wake his mother the next morning. As a result his mother woke up late and Maui could spy on her. He found out that during the day his mother visits his father who was living in the underground world. His father very happy to meet his youngest son and then he preformed the ceremony which made Maui to be warrior.

Wait for my next post to find out what happened next! My second post about Maui is titled Attempt at Immortality

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