Page 4 - Puhipi

The Coming of the Maori

In the beginning was Te Kore, the void. It was the nothingness, the emptiness. In it no
being lived or moved or had existence. And after the void was Te Po, the night, the
great night, the night that would press upon the eyes if eyes there were, and upon the
mind, if mind there were, but there was neither body nor soul to comprehend the night.

But lo in the pall of night two beings evolved, the Earth Mother below and the Sky

Father above. The Earth Mother was Papatuanuku, the Sky Father, Ranginui-e-tu-
nei. To them in the night were born children who sheltered in the warm crevices of the
earths body, who had there being in the darkness and who longed for the light. These
children, endowed everyone with god-like powers set the sky on high and the earth

below. In the light of the new swung sun there now was created all manner of things
animate and inanimate. And from one of the god children of Earth and Sky sprang
man. It is of man descendant of the gods but linked with Mother Earth, that this story
tells. He is a Maori.

Let us look at him, consider his mental and physical characteristics, wonder where his

ancestors came from, see how he lived in the past and how he lives now, and if we dare,
ponder over what the future holds for him.

If we were to look at the world 2000 years ago, the minds eye would probably travel
first to the great civilisations of the Mediterranean. It would see cultures that had
evolved in the river valleys of the east, which had spread, flowered and interlocked

across the face of the old world, had influenced life and custom in areas as far apart as
the British Isles and North Africa. In Asia it would see the significant development of
the civilisations of the Indian and Chinese people. In America it would see how men
had already crossed the Bering Strait and had scattered themselves across the face of
the still near empty continent. And in the Western Pacific it would see the Proto-

Polynesians beginning to probe, by chance and design into the sea of many islands.
These men, women and children were the ancestors of the Maori people of Aotearoa.

In spite of the incomparable adventure of the Kon Tiki, the bulk of evidence traditional
and archaelogical still points to an asian origin for the polynesians. Entry to the Pacific

by the questing long boats was probably through Micronesia, that part of the ocean
that lies north of New Guinea and which includes the Caroline, Marshall and Gilbert
Islands.

Polynesia, the area that was to be thiers alone for many centuries, is a huge triangle
with Hawaii in the north, Easter Island in the east & Aotearoa in the south. In the
centre are the Society Islands.

Over the years the Polynesians visited every island in that waste of waters settling

permanently on many. No one will ever know at what cost that settlement was