Title: Making New Zealand vol 01 no 02: The Maori

Author: Centennial Branch, Department of Internal Affairs

Editor: Eric Hall McCormick

Publication details: Centennial Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, 1939, Wellington

Part of: The New Zealand Centennial Publications

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page 18

The Hunstman Triumphed by Skill and the Help of the God

Large game was absent from the old-time New Zealand forest. Even the pig was a late-comer to these shores, being introduced by Captain Cook. The great moa bird, long extinct, was probably hunted by the pre-Maori inhabitants of New Zealand, for its remains have been found close to ancient ovens. It was still found in the North Island when the first Polynesian settlers arrived. Traditions from the East Coast preserve a clear account of the first meeting of the early Maori with a few surviving birds. Apparently, however, the moa survived in the South Island long after it had disappeared further north.

The absence of large game made the birds and rats of the forest desirable additions to the Maori diet. The forests were under the protection of the great god Tane. Thus different forms of tapu had to be observed in order to retain the good-will of this god when hunting in the forest. Cooked food, for example, was not taken to the forest, nor was food ever cooked in the forest. If bird hunters left feathers scattered about the forest, this was unlucky, because all the birds would probably fly away. First-fruit offerings were common. The first birds and the first fish caught and the first crops were all offered to the gods. Simple shrines were set up in the forest, and on these offerings of grass and small branches were placed to placate the forest spirits.

With all his efforts to secure spiritual help, the Maori did not neglect to acquire all the knowledge he could of the habits of the birds he hunted. He used snares and running nooses to catch pigeons. He used a decoy bird and a slip-noose to catch the parrakeet. He used a lure for the kiwi and sometimes also hunted this bird with the aid of his native dog. The rat he trapped with a spring trap or else caught in a pit—and the rat he considered a great delicacy.

Most of the birds and rats that rewarded his hunting he preserved in large gourds. The carcases were boned and cooked. Then they were packed into the gourds and covered with their own 'melted fat. Thus preserved, they constituted a highly-prized food supply and were often taken as valued gifts when an inland tribe visited friends on the sea-coast.

From the forest also came many of the berries that were eaten, and many of the berries also from which were extracted the vegetable oils used to soften and make attractive the hair and skin.

The bird spears and snaring perches used by the Maori were often elaborately carved. The carving did not increase their usefulness in any way. But this gives us a hint as to the motives of the Maori craftsman. He was interested in beautiful implements and tools just for the sake of their beauty. And he would labour long and lovingly at his carving designs as, with his slow, stone tools, he made more beautiful the things that he used in everyday life. The old-time Maori was not lazy and shiftless. He liked to carve his snaring perch or his fighting spear, and carve them he did with beautiful intricate designs that had no other purpose than to appeal to his aesthetic sense and his pride.

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