Lecture 4- Nga Hekenga Waka: Migration and Early Settlement Flashcards
The Polynesian triangle
Group of islands including New Zealand, Cook Island, Samoa, Tonga etc. where frequent waka migrations would occur and subsequently share many similarities today.
East Polynesian language relationships
Te Reo Māori groups with languages in cook islands, society islands, Tuamotu islands are known as the ‘tahitic’ branch of the Polynesian language tree
-Hawaiki must lie close to the islands associated with ‘tahitic’ languages.
Archaic East Polynesian Assemblage
The islands in the eastern Polynesian world use similar tools (axes, fish hooks, harpoons etc.) —> more related?
and these are different to anything found in Fiji or west Polynesia (Samoa, Tonga etc.) —>less related?
Hawaiki zone
- Hawaiki defined less as a single island but as a zone of islands
-Hawaiki is ancestral homeland
-Very high level of interisland voyaging and networking behaviour in tropical east Polynesia (waka migrations used to do this –> for marriages, trade, fighting etc. )
-First settlers came to new Zealand from many different islands within the Hawaiki zone.
Reasons for leaving Hawiki
-Migrants left to escape conflicts over land boundaries, gardens and fruit trees; or conflicts between men of rank
seeking to marry the same woman
- Turi (of Aotea waka) left after hearing a threatening song composed by his opponent and which his wife had overheard and sung to him
- Traditions point to internal cultural imperatives being key
driver for departures
-Departures were carefully planned: waka gifted to
migrants or specially built for trip
Key takeaway: Departure from Hawaiki zone was not likely due to hunger/ over population. They weren’t forced to leave in a hurry. Instead it was due to conflicts, disputes, threats, tensions.
Who built the wakas?
Building of waka by teams of tohunga hired by migration leaders
e.g. Rakatāura, chief builder of Tainui waka
Some Migration leaders
- Turi, commander of the Aotea waka
-Tama-te-kapua, commander of Te Arawa waka
- Whakaotirangi, female leader, Tainui waka
Waka names
Waka names remember incidents in building:
e.g. Horouta (Swallowed-land) because it was fast;
e.g. Tainui (Big-in-sea)
because it did not sit right in sea and needed remedial work
Importance of waka ‘cargo’
Cargo includes
- Plants like taro, hue (gourd), aute (paper mulberry), karaka tree, kūmara (sweet potato)
-Animals like kiore (Pacific rat), kurī (dog)
- Other objects including tools, weapons, mauri
(protective stones), figures of guardian atua - Migrants also transport their cultural knowledge
(karakia, stories, ritual) in their memories
-They are bringing everything they need to start a new life on a different land.
Dating migration from Hawaiki:
archaeology and traditions
-Earliest dated archaeological site in Aotearoa in mid-14th
century
- Major settlement event shortly after 1300 AD
-Multiple arrivals over a century or so involving a number of canoes arriving from Hawaiki
- Waka arrivals over two or more generations
- Certain ancestors visit and return to Hawaiki: Kupe, Irākewa (father of Toroa), Ngahue.
- Returnees provide information and instructions to later
migrant
Multi-generational
migration pattern
- Uruao waka encountered earlier people living in
northern tip, Te Ika-a-Māui, and sailed for Te
Waipounamu which was unoccupied - Tainui’s commander, Hoturoa, visits relations on
Tāmaki River who had settled there two generations
earlier - Tutara-kauika waka leaders visit sister living in
Aotearoa - Earlier peoples from previous waka, or stayed over from visits of Kupe and other returnees to Hawaiki
What has mitochondrial DNA studies shown about waka migrations?
- Mitochondrial DNA studies in modern Māori
(measuring connections of individuals through
female lineages) suggest at least 190 females must
have been present in founding crews, making about 500 people as founding population (points to multiple wakas being required)
Did waka usually travel alone?
- Waka sail in company with one, two or more other waka; a pair of waka was common; some like Aotea sail solo to Aotearoa
Wairau bar
- Early Māori settlement
with strong evidence of
direct link to Hawaiki (people who were born there) - Mitochondrial DNA study
of human remains shows
none of the remains were
maternally connected - Originated from different
genetic communities, i.e.,
from different islands
–> again points to multiple waka arriving at various different times for differing areas within the Hawaiki zone.
Wairau Bar site: burials
Other evidence for early site includes location of burials close to village, as in tropical East Polynesia, but in contrast to later
Māori practices when bodies were secreted away from sites of occupation
