Maori Culture: Literature, Music, and Legends of New Zealand
This paper surveys the cultural and literary traditions of the Maori, the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. Beginning with their origins and arrival by canoe, the paper examines how Maori oral culture—comprising prayers, love poems, war chants, and laments—was later documented by European settlers. It covers traditional music and song types (waiata), recited chants (karakia, haka, paatere), and the role of genealogical recitation in preserving history. The paper then traces the emergence of Maori English-language literature through writers such as Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace, and closes with an overview of prominent Maori legends including the demigod Māui and other stories tied to the New Zealand landscape.
- Origins of the Maori People: Polynesian roots and arrival in New Zealand
- Maori Oral Tradition and Literary Works: European documentation of Maori stories and poems
- Music, Poetry, and Chants: Song types, chant forms, and musical traditions
- Short Stories and Drama: Emergence of modern Maori English-language writing
- Maori Legends: Key legends including Māui and regional stories
- References: Cited sources for the paper
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What makes this paper effective
- Organizes Maori cultural expression into clear thematic categories—oral tradition, music, literature, and legend—making a broad topic manageable and readable.
- Integrates specific titles, names, and dates (e.g., Hone Tuwhare's No Ordinary Sun, 1964; Ihimaera's The Whale Rider, 1987) to ground general claims in concrete evidence.
- Balances historical context (European documentation in the 1800s) with contemporary relevance (action songs, modern Maori writers), showing cultural continuity across time.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of cited secondary sources to support cultural survey claims. Each major section draws on at least one attributed source (Stead, Anderson et al., National Library of New Zealand), modeling how to anchor descriptive claims about an unfamiliar culture in credible references rather than assertion alone.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief introduction to Maori origins, then moves through four thematic sections: the history of Maori oral and written literature, the taxonomy of traditional music and chant forms, the emergence of modern Maori fiction and drama, and a survey of well-known legends. A reference list closes the paper. Each section is self-contained but contributes to an cumulative portrait of Maori cultural identity.
Origins of the Maori People
The tangata whenua, also known as the Maori, are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They are said to have originated from the Eastern Polynesian islands and are believed to have traveled to New Zealand several centuries ago by canoe, in an event traditionally referred to as the "Great Fleet." Upon relocating to New Zealand, these Polynesian voyagers became known as the Maori and developed their own distinct language, traditional values, and cultural practices (Anderson, Hoeberigs, Mackinnon & Thwaites, 2015).
Maori Oral Tradition and Literary Works
According to Stead (2016), the Maori, like other Polynesian communities, began settling the islands now known as New Zealand approximately a millennium ago. They composed, practiced, and performed prayers, love poems, war chants, and laments. They also created myths that recorded and explained their past lives, as well as the stories of their community heroes and gods.
With the growth of European settlement between 1800 and 1900, Europeans gathered these stories and poems and transcribed them in the Maori language. The most striking legends and myths were then translated into English, published in series, and given titles such as Maori Fairy Tales, which were read to—or by—European (Pakeha) children. This led to widespread knowledge of legends such as that of the lovers Tutanekai and Hinemoa, and of the exploits of Maui, the man-god who restrained the sun and fished up the North Island from the sea.
From approximately 1800 to 1850, the Maori community was severely affected by European diseases. As their population appeared to decline, European researchers set about recording as much Maori legend as possible, fearing the community might disappear and wishing to preserve its rich oral culture—noted for its poetic beauty, figurative language, and rarity. Some of these records were published, while most were stored in libraries, where they continue to be used by Maori scholars and students interested in their ancestral culture. The Maori culture remains strongly oral to this day; genealogical storytelling, narrative, and speech-making are its principal expressive forms (Stead, 2016).
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