Poenamo - John Logan Campbell
First published 1881.
I came across this book in a cool little bookshop in Kaikoura, and the idea of reading an early New Zealand text intrigued me. Campbell was born in Scotland, and after training as a doctor headed for the distant land of Australia, and then subsequently on to New Zealand, which he calls Poenamo (we would now spell that word pounamu, and it refers to greenstone, highly favoured by Maori for carving and even for weapons).
Campbell arrives in 1840, the year that the Treaty of Waitangi is signed, and is therefore in the country before almost any settlers have arrived. Upon arriving, he lives first with an American, William Webster, who has taken a Maori wife and is known as 'King' Wepiha. He later lives in the Maori village of Waiomo as the guest of chief Kanini, before starting a small farm on the island of Motu-Korea (which he purchases from Kanini), and later moving to the fledgling capital in Waitemata Harbour - the settlement that becomes the city of Auckland.
For much of this adventure he is accompanied by a friend, whom history tells us was fellow Scotsman William Brown, but whom Campbell in the book simply refers to as his fellow Paheka, his friend, or his senior business partner. The fact that Campbell doesn't name Brown as Brown (or if he does, it is only once and I have forgotten it) is just one example of Campbell not always emphasizing things one who assume he would, or at least, not emphasizing things that a modern reader would. Thus he talks about life in the Maori village, and gives some idea of various aspects (he goes into great detail about a tangi for a deceased chief, including such a high level of superstition surrounding tapu that another figure dies later due to fear surrounding it!), but in other areas gives no details at all.
With this in mind though, Poenamo is an interesting, if not gripping, read. Campbell gives the perspective of an early European settler towards the Maori people, before any of the major disagreements between Maori and Pakeha had begun, stating that "the one desire of the Maori at that epoch was to get the Pakeha to come and live at their settlements" (page 225-226). This contemporary perspective is valuable, especially from one like Campbell, who is willing to turn the critical lens against his own people at times as well. As an example, Campbell doesn't think that the missionary work among the Maori has been very effective, claiming that it has transformed outward behaviour, but "not heart-devotion - a mere substitute of one kind of superstition for another in Maori eyes" (page 170, the emphasis is in the original). Even though there is evidence elsewhere of actual converts among Maori (I think the story of Tarore is a good example of heart transformation in a tribe rather than just lip-service) Campbell's perspective is also a good reminder that zeal for outward conformity can rob some missionaries of their effectiveness.
Poenamo also highlights the life of early settlers, in Campbell's words, not just the romance but the reality of it as well (page 212). He talks about digging wells, learning commerce, and killing his first pig, and does it all with a dash of humour thrown in. Writing forty years after the events he is describing, Campbell even manages to reflect upon the changes that have taken place in his own lifetime, and gives a mildly regretful feel to things at times... "Alas that native names should have been replaced by Mount Eden, Wellington, Hobson, Smart!...What a blessed thing that Rangitoto has escaped the sacrilege of being named forever as perhaps 'Two-Pap Peak Hill'!" (page 60). It is fascinating to read things like that being written in the 1880s when we consider the growing call to move back to Maori names today.
Poenamo is probably more interesting from a factual point of view than from a narrative one. It is in patches quite light, yet also has the occasional insight that makes it worth perusing for fans of New Zealand history.
Completed 25 May 2021.
Comments
Post a Comment