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
How would waka’s get out into the ocean?
Waka sail out though Ava/ Reef channel —> heading out through break in reef
The design of a waka: double-hulled canoe
-Academics debate about accuracy of things like rigging in modern reconstructions but essential elements shown
-Triangular sales (Cook obtained in NZ)
-Two wakas with bridge in between
-We have a fair idea of what they looked like from drawing and documentations at the time
Leaders of waka during voyage
- rangatira (commander at stern, other leaders supervising at
bow, midships) - tohunga (specialists, responsible for navigation, ritual protection from elements)
Waka leadership imagery: -kaihautū (person giving time to paddlers), kaiurungi (person steering boat)
Waka voyage: crew
-Crew comprising families and friends of leaders
-Crew numbers between about 22 to 70
Selected waka names
-Aotea
-Horo-uta
-Kurahaupō
-Mataatua,
-Tākitimu
-Tainui,
-Te Arawa
-Tokomaru
-Te Ara-tawhao
-Te Ririno
-Kairaerae
Waka voyage: conflicts between rangatira
and tohunga
- Some rangatira tricked tohunga on board as they were possessors of rare navigational and ritual knowledge
e.g.
Te Arawa: Tama-te-kapua’s affair with Ngātoro-i-rangi’s (tohunga) wife, prompts Ngātoro to respond to Tama’s actions. Ngātoro drives waka into Te Korokoro-o-te-Parata (Te
Waha o Parata), a whirlpool, shoal or storm.
People of Te Arawa (the waka) plead with Ngātoro to show
compassion (aroha); he saves the ship.
Challenges and hazards of
voyage
-Kurahaupō waka is wrecked and comes ashore on Rangitahua Island (Raoul Island)
- Tuwhenua waka (also known as Moe-kakara, Te
Wakatuwhenua) experiences leprosy - Ārai-te-uru loses crew and goods in rough seas (Moeraki boulders), capsizes at Matakaea (Shag Point)
- Tākitimu has a long voyage and experiences hunger
- Tākitimu encounters rough seas and nearly rolls over at Muriwhenua; loses crew and equipment; founders in TeAra-A-Kiwa (Foveaux Strait)
-Horo-uta capsizes off Whakatāne
- Tainui nearly founders when crew distracted by sight of large trees; stuck on Tāmaki-makaurau canoe portage (Auckland)
-Mātaatua’s men neglect ship’s safety, Wairaka saves boat: ‘E! Kia whakatane ake au i ahau’ (‘Let me act the part of a man’).
Waka landing sites
-Each waka landed in varied places and tend to move around going to multiple different sites in order to explore
-A lot of the sites were on the east side of new Zealand (as that is angled towards Hawaiki)
First actions on landing: rituals
- Erect a tūāhu (altar, sacred site) to thank the atua for their protection, comprising fire, mauri (special stones), wooden posts
-Karakia by Ngātoro-i-rangi
Early actions of landing: exploration
- Hinekauirangi of Horo-uta performs the whakaū
ritual, clearing way for her exploration journey - Exploration and naming of the landscape.
- Establish claims to land by naming after body parts. e.g. Tamatekapua claims Maketū’s headland: ‘Ko te kūreitanga o taku ihu’ (‘It is the bridge of my nose’)
- Uru-ao’s captain, Rākaihautū, lands at Whakatū (Nelson) and walks south creating the major southern lakes with his kō (digging stick), Tūwhakarōria.
First actions of settlement: resources +stone finding
- Identify resource base of
new land, especially its
industrial grade stone
resources in order to manufacture adzes, Cutting tools from obsidian (Stone resources identified
in first decade of
settlement)
First actions of settlement: food + tools
- Planting of crops: kūmara becomes dominant due to
tolerating temperate climate - Development of food storage techniques due to
cooler weather - Maintaining and adapting ancestral tool kits due to
lost resources (pearlshell)
-Adaptation to rich local resources: animals (moa, sea mammals, birds)
Settlement stategies
- exploring wider landscape from waka landing base
(e.g., Ārai-te-uru) - Waka crew breaking up into smaller exploration parties under an ancestor (e.g., Te Arawa)
- Travelling together to new settlement (Aotea)
- Settling in dispersed settlements around landing place
(Tainui) - Disputes sometimes broke up settlements, with some ancestors seeking new home (Mātaatua)
First actions of settlement: development of colonizing network
- Development of colonising network of small communities
interacting with each other
-Waka continue to travel between communities,
establishing links through intermarriage, thus
strengthening bonds
-Wairau Bar may have been a focal point of colonisation,
maintaining links to various other settlements
- Intermarriage also between later and earlier waka
migration groups - Some migrants return home to Hawaiki
Takitimu mountains
Identification of settlers with the local world:
-Te Tai-o-Ārai-te-uru (Otagocoast);
- Tākitimu mountains in Murihiku (Southland)
=the waka descendants become the tangata whenua (people of the land)
A contemporary waka (mangaia)
- People travelling across the pacific today to mimic the paths of ancestors
-Or for fishing: continues to work in island today
-The Waka story carries on
