Waitaha

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Waitaha (literally: water carrier ) is a vaguely defined name for an early indigenous population of New Zealand, particularly on the South Island. The status of today's Waitaha descendants is controversial.

The name “ Waitaha ” has recently been associated with a matriarchal Polynesian peace culture (“ nation of peace ”) which, according to the - scientifically unrecognized - testimony of today's Waitaha descendants , came to New Zealand about 1000 years before the historically traditional Māori immigration.

history

The Māori immigration to New Zealand from their mythical homeland Hawaiki began around the 12th century, according to their oral sources. From the 16th century onwards, the peace-loving Waitaha were expelled or killed by the warlike Māori tribes , and the survivors were gradually absorbed through expeditions of conquest and marriage, first by the Kāti Māmoe and later by the Ngāi Tahu .

In the tradition of the Ngāi Tahu and Kāti Mamoe , “ Waitaha ” is understood not only as a special Iwi (tribe), but also as a collective name for the first inhabitants of the South Island. " Waitaha were both a people and a collection of peoples. The name refers to all those who were there prior to the Ngati [= Kāti ] Mamoe and Ngāi Tahu migrations. "

When exactly the Waitaha came to the South Island has not yet been clarified archaeologically, but it is assumed that in contrast to the less numerous Waitaha of the South Island, the Māori tribes on the North Island grew stronger due to the more favorable environmental conditions and that the Waitaha eventually grew which in New Zealand not unusual migratory movements were destroyed and absorbed.

The Māori genealogy traces the Waitaha to an ancestor named Rakaihautu and his son Rokohuia . A rakaihautu is also known in the tradition of Taitokerau on the North Island and of Rarotonga in Polynesia . Your waka (canoe) Uruao is also the name of a constellation and a navigation path on the Star-oriented Polynesian navigation aids.

The descendants of the Waitaha are no longer considered to be an independent tribe and are - against their will due to the controversial Ngāi Tahu Settlement Act (1999) - represented by the Ngāi Tahu, who dominate the South Island economically and politically .

Several organizations in and around Christchurch have “ Waitaha ” in their name, but this has nothing to do with the Waitaha living today ; the name is only used as a synonym for the Canterbury region (an old Waitaha settlement area) - e.g. B. Waitaha Cultural Council or the Māori name of the University of Canterbury Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha .

"Song of Waitaha"

In 1994 New Zealand published " Song of Waitaha - The Histories of a Nation " - a book in which the story of the Waitaha is told by themselves. It represents an excerpt from the cultural memory of the Waitaha , which was handed down in their sacred chants, the " chants ". In the last centuries, when the Waitaha could no longer live autonomously, they had kept this knowledge hidden; In the late 1980s, the elders decided to publish their ancient lore.

" Song of Waitaha " contains the creation myths and other mythological tales, as they can be heard very similarly among different Māori tribes, but the emphasis is on the descriptions of the Waitaha migrations , especially on the South Island, their way of life and their customs and traditions . This shows the image of a matriarchal society that knows neither weapons nor defenses, in which - unlike the historical Māori - the killing of a person (including an enemy warrior) is taboo and whose most important deity is Rongo Marae Roa , the goddess of Peace, is. Another special feature is that the Waitaha proudly emphasize their multi-ethnic roots and describe how they have always liked to connect with other tribes and peoples, while at the same time cultivating the knowledge of their long-reaching lineages ( whakapapa ).

reception

“ Song of Waitaha ” met with the most severe criticism immediately after its release. The trigger was the - in the book rather insignificant - statement that the settlement of New Zealand by the ancestors of the Waitaha "began 67 generations ago" (according to popular conversion this would be around 1700 years ago). That would add almost 1000 years of "history" to all previous knowledge and convictions and is thus in stark contrast to the current historiography, according to which New Zealand was uninhabited at that time. "There was not a skerrick of evidence - linguistic, artifactual, genetic; no datable carbon or pollen remains, nothing - that the story [from " Song of Waitaha "] had any basis in fact. ” - Also some Māori , especially the Ngāi Tahu , were heavily criticized for being descendants of the" classical " Māori , seeing the indigenous people of their country as the sole tangata whenua (and therefore also received and received compensation payments for the illegal land grabbing of the white, mostly British settlers).

An impartial reception of this self-portrayal of the Waitaha and their history was made difficult not least because certain New Age circles around Barry Brailsford , who had worked on the publication of the book, speculatively exploited the topic and marketed it in their own way, much to the chagrin the Waitaha , who vigorously but unsuccessfully opposed this discrediting and "spiritual exploitation". "Having appropriated to himself the vision behind the publication of this work, he [Brailsford] launched himself upon the world as the latest in a series of new age gurus whose lifestyle is maintained through the appropriation, re-interpretation and commodification of the knowledge, value systems, cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices of indigenous peoples ". Since then, " Song of Waitaha " has been considered by many to be the literary fantasy product of Pākehā (white) Brailsford . An appropriate reception - regardless of the controversial question of dating - this mythological, ethnological (e.g. for matriarchy research), ecological and general cultural-historical interesting document of an early Pacific peace culture is still in its infancy.

The German version of " Song of Waitaha " made the Waitaha known for the first time in Europe. In 2008 two German schools (the Landesmusikgymnasium Rhineland-Palatinate and the Free Waldorf School Neuwied) staged a "Theaterspektakel" (with orchestra and choir) with texts from the mythology and history of the Waitaha .

See also

literature

  • Song of Waitaha. The Histories of a Nation . Wharariki Publishing Company , Darfield, New Zealand 2003, ISBN 0-9583378-1-0 (English, first edition 1994).
  • Makere Ruka Te Korako, Te Porohau Ruka Te Korako : Whispers of Waitaha. Traditions of a Nation . Wharariki Publishing Company , Darfield, New Zealand 2006, ISBN 0-9582541-0-9 (English).
  • Winfried Altmann (Ed.): Song of Waitaha. The legacy of a culture of peace in New Zealand. According to the chants of the elders, told by Te Porohau Ruka Te Korako . Drachen Verlag, Klein Jasedow 2010, ISBN 978-3-927369-51-1 (German translation of the book: Song of Waitaha. First edition 2006).
  • Herries Beattie , Teone Taare Tikao : Tikao Talks. Traditions and Tales . Cadsonbury Publications , Christchurch, New Zealand 2004, ISBN 1-877346-04-7 (English, first edition 1939 by AW Reed, Dunedin ).
  • Winfried Altmann: Three articles in: 360 ° - New Zealand : "Maoritanga": The reality of the myth in Aotearoa. (No. 4, 2012, pp. 52-55); Waitaha - New Zealand's indigenous people with a difference. (No. 1/2013, pp. 54-57); "The sadness still remains". The last Waitaha in New Zealand. (No. 2/2013, pp. 43-46). ISSN  1866-797X

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ngai Tahu before the Treaty . (PDF; 4.0 MB) In: The Ngai Tahu Report 1991 . Waitangi Tribunal , accessed May 22, 2019 .
  2. ^ Ngāi Tahu and Waitaha . In: Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , accessed July 14, 2011 .
  3. ^ Makere Stewart-Harawira : The New Imperial Order - Indigenous Responses To Globalization . Huia Publischers , Wellington 2005, ISBN 1-86969-160-1 , pp.  196 ff . (English).
  4. ^ Markus A. Schneider: The Peace People of the Waitaha . In: Matrix 3000 . tape 27 , (May / June). Matrix3000 Verlag GmbH, Peiting 2005 (English, online [accessed January 25, 2016]).
  5. ^ History of Song of Waitaha: Histories of a Nation. . Wharariki Publishing Limited , accessed July 14, 2011 .
  6. ↑ Waitaha Nation of Peace . Wharariki Publishing Limited , accessed July 14, 2011 .
  7. ↑ a b Makere Harawira : Neo-imperialism and the (mis) appropriation of indigenousness . Kingston Strategic (NZ) Ltd , accessed July 14, 2011 .
  8. ^ Michael King : The Penguin history of New Zealand . Penguin Books , Auckland 2003, ISBN 0-14-301867-1 (English).
  9. ↑ Winfried Altmann: The legacy of the Waitaha. (PDF; 200 kB) In: Kulturkreatives Spektrum. Retrieved May 22, 2019 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Teone Taare Tikao lived from 1850 to 1927; For ten years he was a student of the last Tohunga (priest, initiate) of his time and was considered the best expert on the history of the indigenous peoples of New Zealand, especially the South Island. In 1920 he told the historian Herries Beattie about his wealth of knowledge for two weeks.