Haerenga: Early Māori Journeys Across the Globe - Vincent O'Malley

Published by Bridget Williams Books Limited: Wellington, New Zealand, 2016 (2015).

This is an interesting little book about the first contact between Europeans and Māori and the subsequent journeys undertaken by Māori out into the wider world. The earliest journeys often reflect fairly badly on the Europeans, who seem to have abducted numerous Māori for various reasons, and which often end with the New Zealanders dying of scurvy or some European disease. Perhaps the strangest example in the book of Māori being kidnapped is that of Tuki Tahua and Huru Kokoti (told on pages 19-26) who were lured onto a ship with the offer of gifts and then forcibly taken to Norfolk Island in order to instruct the European prisoners there how to properly "dress the flax" (remove the straw from the fibres) for turning into useful materials. As O'Malley then states: "A huge amount of effort had gone into a scheme with one fatal flaw. For as the Lieutenant-Governor soon discovered from the pair, within Māori society flax-dressing was 'the peculiar province of the women.'" (page 22). This pair were eventually returned to New Zealand; a better outcome than many of their country-men.

Another figure I found quite interesting was that of Te Pehi Kupe, whose story is told on pages 79-84. Already having learned that Europeans were valuable sources of resources, Te Pehi boarded a European ship, the Urania in the Cook Strait seeking weapons. Learning that there were none aboard he then decided he wanted to go to England to meet the king, and resisted all efforts to throw him overboard until his waka were too far away to retrieve him. After saving the captain of the ship, Richard Reynolds, from drowning, Te Pehi and Reynolds became close friends, with Reynolds supporting Te Pehi during his stay in England, as well as helping arrange an audience with King George VI. All of the gifts Te Pehi received during his stay were later sold for muskets, meaning that his mission was eventually a success.

Full of interesting stories (though the vast majority focus on England as the destination of choice), this was a very niche book that I nevertheless quite enjoyed.

Completed 8 May 2023.




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