Māori oral traditions record and convey indigenous knowledge of marine and freshwater resources

ABSTRACT

Whakataukī are part of a strongly developed Māori oral tradition that conveys critical information about aspects of life, society and tribal memory, including ecological knowledge. Such codified knowledge depends on language use and structure as a key mechanism for cultural transmission. Additionally, many meanings may not be apparent without knowing the historical, cultural and linguistic context from which the whakataukī originated. We examined a primary dataset of c. 3500 versions of whakataukī, drawn from collections published after European arrival c. 200 years ago, to determine how marine and freshwater principles, practices and knowledge bases have developed in response to changing environmental and societal contexts in Aotearoa. We present information on marine and freshwater resources contained in whakataukī to shed light on the connections between humans and their environment that transcend prosaic uses and enlighten deeper social and behavioural engagement with the surrounding environment. Understanding past engagement can help shape future marine and freshwater relationships in Aotearoa.

TUHINGA-WHAKARĀPOPOTO

Ko te whakataukī he wāhi nui o te pakari o ngā kōrero tuku iho a te Māori, kei a ia te hōhonu o te whakaatu i te kaikini o te mātauranga e pā ana ki te hauoranga, te hapori, me te mau ā-mahara a ngā iwi, tae atu ana ki te mātauranga o te taiao. He pānga nui ki reira nō te reo me ōna hanga rerenga, he huarahi whakahirahira mō te tuku ahurea. Tua atu o tērā kāhore rā pea he māramatanga ki te kore e mōhiotia te horopaki ā-whakapapa, ā-ahurea, ā-ringikuihi i puta mai ai te whakataukī. Ko tā mātou he tirotiro ki tētahi huinga raraunga hirahira o ētahi whakataukī, tata pea ki te 3500, i tīpakohia mai i ētahi kohinga i tuhia nō muri noa i te taenga mai o te Pākehā. 200 tau pea ki muri. Mai i reira kitea ai te whaonga o te mātāpono, te tikanga, me te mātauranga ā-waitai, ā-waimāori hoki; hei takatūranga ki te takahurihanga o ngā horopaki ā-taiao, ā-pāpori hoki i Aotearoa nei. Anei tā mātou whakaatu i ētahi mōhiohio mō ētahi rawa ā-waitai, ā-waimāori hoki mai i te whakataukī hei whakamārama i ngā hononga i waenganui i te tangata me tōna taiao tua atu o te whakamahinga noa, inā rā he whakamārama kē ake i te hōhonu o ngā pānga ā-ahurea, ā-whanonga ki te paenga o te taiao. Mā te mōhio ki ngā mahi o ngā rā o mua tētahi āwhina nui ki te tārai i ngā hūāngatanga ā-waitai, ā-waimāori hoki o āpōpō ki Aotearoa nei.

KEYWORDS:

• Whakataukī
• marine
• freshwater
• oral tradition
• Māori linguistic networks

TINO-KUPU:

• whakataukī
• marine
• freshwater
• oral tradition
• Māori linguistic networks

Introduction

Māori have a close association, affiliation and connection with the sea, bodies of water and its many manifestations (Best 1929; Tipa 2009). This close association stems from Māori ancestral seafaring origins in East Polynesia, from where Polynesian ancestors populated the outer regions of the Pacific, finally settling in Aotearoa (Sneider and Kyselka 1986; Lewis 1994; Evans 1997; Prickett 2001). These early Polynesian settlers brought with them an extensive Pacific knowledge base; reminders of their tropical Pacific origins are scattered throughout the landscape of Aotearoa and embedded in many places and species names that pay homage to Polynesia (New Zealand Geographic Board 1990; Biggs 1991; Turoa 2000; Riley 2001).

Fishing and harvesting of marine and freshwater resources were a core activity of early Māori who were initially concentrated in coastal regions (Best 1929; Barber 2004; Leach 2006; Paulin 2007). These settlers used their knowledge of tropical Pacific environments together with developing marine, ecological, horticultural and agricultural knowledge bases (applicable to both the warm subtropical climate in the north and the cooler temperate climate in the south of Aotearoa) to observe, test, develop and re-establish environmental, meteorological, astronomical and marine relationships (King et al. 2007; Harris et al. 2013; Tāwhai 2013). These traditions and observations were embedded in various oral formats including whakataukī/whakatauākī (proverbs), maramataka (lunar calendars), karakia (incantations), pepeha (tribal saying, tribal motto, formulaic expression), whakapapa (genealogy), kupu whakarite (metaphors), kōrero (prose), pūrākau (narratives that contains philosophical thought and worldviews) and waiata (song and chant) (Mead and Grove 2001; Tāwhai 2013; McRae 2017). These oral traditions carry the ecological knowledge that can elucidate Māori relationships with nature. Here, we focus on whakataukī, passed from generation to generation as

a concise phrase, a single statement, a short passage, a brief conversation. Apart from proverbs, epithets, mottos and slogans that arise from pithy comment or observation, there are instructions, intentions, greetings and farewells, predictions and challenges. There are also exchanges between individuals, abbreviated forms of tribal boundaries, as well as quotations from, or summary beginnings and endings to, songs and narratives. Form has to do with function here as well. (McRae 2017)

Whakataukī have been examined in a variety of contexts to gain insight on traditional knowledge and practices and contemporary applications, including traditional ecological knowledge (Wehi 2009; Wehi et al. 2018; Whaanga and Wehi 2016), and many other areas of research (see McRae 1987; Seed-Pihama 2004; Metge and Jones 2005; Seed-Pihama 2005; Wehi 2006; Kawharu 2008; Wehi et al. 2009; Edwards 2010; Pihama et al. 2015; Greensill et al. 2017; McRae 2017). Wehi et al. (2013) examined whakataukī that refer to marine environments and found that these sayings aligned well with broader archaeological data on food sources, but also illuminated connections between humans and their environment that transcend harvesting to reach into patterns of human behaviour and societal development. Here, we develop this approach further. We first focus on expressed relationships between species and ideas in both marine and freshwater whakataukī. Second, we unpack some of the deeper meanings within a subset of whakataukī to demonstrate the transposition/transformation of knowledge to human realms, acting to embed humankind into a worldview where human whakapapa is inside not outside nature.

In this paper, we discuss examples of the various functions of whakataukī and examine the range of relationships demonstrated in whakataukī for marine and freshwater species.

Methods

Dataset

Māori oral tradition was recorded by many early European ethnographers, missionaries, colonial administrators, ethnographers, linguists, explorers and politicians (see Wehi et al. (2018) for details and a discussion of these sources). In short, we used a pariemological dataset of 2669 Māori ancestral sayings (Mead and Grove 2001) as our primary dataset, supplemented by additional entries from Grove (1981) (n = 3421).

Data analyses

Qualitative analyses of whakataukī included inspection of word frequencies, determined using an online word counting tool (http://www.textfixer.com/tools/online-word-counter.php). All function words (such as he ‘a’, te/ngā ‘the’ and roto ‘in’) were removed from the dataset using standard UNIX operations (particularly the command line program grep). However, care was taken with words that are both function words (e.g. roto ‘in’) and content words (e.g. roto ‘lake’) in Māori. Temporal assignments of whakataukī were made using linguistic, historical and cultural cues as described in both Wehi et al. (2013) and Wehi et al. (2018). All statistical approaches were implemented in R v. 3.4.3 (R Development Core Team 2018).

Results and discussion

Of the 3421 whakataukī in this dataset, 233 refer to marine and freshwater-based faunal resources. This represents approximately 35% of the faunal whakataukī in the dataset (Wehi et al. 2013). The three highest frequency words are the noun ika (fish; n = 44), the stative/noun mate (be dead, deceased, killed, sick, ill, ailing, diseased, beaten, defeated, conquered, misfortune; n = 25) and kai (food; n = 22) (Figure 1). Many of the references to marine and freshwater fauna occur in generic form; of the 125 references to fish, most are generalised (e.g. ika). Nevertheless, 34 fish species (e.g. tāmure ‘snapper’ Pagrus auratus; hāpuku ‘groper’ Polyprion oxygeneios) are identifiable in the dataset (Table 1). Of the marine and freshwater fauna that can be identified in whakataukī, the proportion of marine vs. freshwater is 82% (n = 150) marine and 18% freshwater (n = 32).

Figure 1. Relative frequency of content words in the marine and freshwater subset of Māori whakataukī. Simple function words have been excluded for clarity.

Table 1. Names of freshwater and marine species mentioned in whakataukī database.

Māori name	Common name	Species/generic	Number
araara	Trevally giant trevally	Pseudocaranx dentex; Caranx georgianus	2
aua	Mullet	Aldrichetta forsteri	3
aua	New Zealand blueback sprat New Zealand sprat	Sprattus antipodum; Sprattus muelleri	2
haku	Kingfish	Seriola lalandi	1
hāpuku	Groper	Polyprion oxygeneios	2
ihe	Garfish	Hyporhamphus ihi	1
ihu-puku	Snapper	Pagrus auratus	1
ika paewai	Longfin eel Shortfin eel	Anguilla dieffenbachii; Anguilla australis	1
ika-puhapuha	Whale – generic unspecified		1
kahawai	Kahawai Northern kahawai	Arripis trutta; Arripis xylabion	7
kākahi	Freshwater mussel	Echyridella menziesii	10
kanae	Grey mullet	Mugil cephalus
kātaha	Yellow-eye mullet	Aldrichena fosteri	1
kekeno	New Zealand fur seal	Arctocephalus forsteri	1
kōkopu	Banded kōkopu Giant kōkopu Shortjaw kōkopu	Galaxias fasciatus; G. argenteus; G. postvectis	2
kiore moana	Seahorse	Probably many species	1
kōkota	Shellfish/pipi	Paphies australis	1
kōrinorino kōkopu	Mottled trout	Probably Galaxias fasciatus and/or G. argenteus	1
korokoro	Lamprey	Geotria australis	1
kōura	Marine  Spiny rock lobster  Packhorse lobster Freshwater  Northern kōura  Southern kōura	Jasus edwardsii; Sagmariasus verreauxi Paranephrops planifrons; Paranephrops zealandicus	15
kuku	Generic term for mussel – here it refers to freshwater mussel	Echyridella menziesii	1
mangā	Barracouta	Thyrsites atun	1
mangō; mangō tāeo	Shark – generic unspecified	Probably many species	4
mangō ururoa	White pointer shark	Carcharodon carcharias	1
manumanu	Skate or stingray Thorn-tail stingray Short-tailed stingray Eagle ray	Dasyatis thetidis; Dasyatis brevicaudatus; Myliobatis tenuicaudatus	1
maomao	Blue maomao Pink maomao	Scorpis violacea; Caprodon longimanus	4
mārearea	Generic term for whitebait	Galaxias species	1
maroro	Flying fish	Cypselurus lineatus	1
moki	Blue moki Red moki	Latridopsis ciliaris Cheilodactylus spectabilis	2
nanua pounamu	Blue moki Red moki	Latridopsis ciliaris Cheilodactylus spectabilis	1
paewai	Longfin eel Shortfin eel	Anguilla dieffenbachii; Anguilla australis	1
pakake	Minke whale	Balaenoptera acutorostrata	1
pāpaka	Crab	Probably many species	3
parāoa	sperm whale	Physeter macrocephalus	10
pātiki	Flounder New Zealand sand flounder Yellowbelly flounder Black flounder New Zealand turbot New Zealand brill	Rhombosolea species Rhombosolea plebeian; Rhombosolea leporine; Rhombosolea retiarii; Colistium nudipinnis; Colistium guntheri	6
pāua	Blackfoot pāua Queen pāua Virgin pāua	Haliotis iris; Haliotis australis; Haliotis virginea	4
piharau	Lamprey	Geotria australis	1
pipi	Pipi	Paphies australis	10
pipi-taiari	Tuskshell	Probably many species	1
rarī	Butterfish	Odax pullus	1
tāeo	Shark – generic unspecified		1
tāmure	Snapper	Pagrus auratus	7
tawatawa	Mackerel	Scomber australasicus	1
tītiko	Periwinkle	Amphibola crenata	1
toheroa	Toheroa	Paphies ventricosa	2
tuangi	Cockle	Austrovenus stutchburyi	1
tuna	Longfin eel Shortfin eel	Anguilla dieffenbachii Anguilla australis	8
ururoa	White shark, white pointer	Carcharodon carcharias	10
whai	Stingray	Dasyatis brevicaudatus	8
whakahao	Sealion	Phocarctos hookeri	1
wheke	Octopus	Probably many species	3

A comparison of marine and freshwater whakataukī showed that references to marine species declined with time while there was a slight increase in references to freshwater species in the period AD 1500–1650 (Figure 2). This increase was mostly due to references to kākahi (freshwater mussel; Echyridella menziesii), and tuna (eel; Anguilla spp.).

Figure 2. Proportions of whakataukī that mention marine (green) and freshwater (blue) resources scaled by the numbers of whakataukī attributed to different historical time periods.

To investigate the relationships of species to the high-frequency words appearing in individual whakataukī, we created a network of species names to high-frequency content words (e.g. where kai and koura, or kai and pātiki, occur in the same whakataukī). This reveals an association between sharks, death (mate) and humans (tangata) (Figure 3), indicating a strong relationship between shark behaviour (i.e. struggling to death, persistence, perseverance) and desired human attributes in times of war and confrontation. Another relationship from tuna (eel) to kai (food) and fishing, watchfulness vs. sleeping, and pathways (ara) details the importance of alertness and observation. The proximity of fish species and the network to moana (ocean) and uta (towards the shore) gives a good example of spatial proximity to these species, and the noun nui (large) indicates the importance of size with kahawai and tāmure. The network of wai (water) to the shallower species (e.g. pāua, pātiki, pāpaka, whai etc.) and then to kai (food) but also to mau (capture) illustrates a further example of food sources and spatial proximity to harvesting actions. The network to kore (oblivion, annihilation, destruction, nothingness) highlights kore as an intriguing node that encapsulates the destruction and potential of all things, where species are connected to a state of ‘nothingness’ (one meaning of kore) but also the process for the ‘potential for everything’ (a further interpretation of kore).

Figure 3. Network of whakataukī that mention marine and freshwater resources (red) and their association with high-frequency content words (blue). Circle size indicates how common each word is in the whakataukī data set.

The network analysis highlights that specific species are used to portray different values, historical events, chieftainship, or harvesting practices in whakataukī, and a body of ecological and cultural information/understandings is embedded in these networks. For example, the freshwater species kākahi was a highly valued and culturally iconic resource in the central North Island lakes area, as are kōura (crayfish; Paranephrops planifrons), where tuna (eel) were rare or absent. The kākahi whakataukī have a number of functions. For example, they reference cultural traditions that include child rearing practices, Ka whakangotea ki te wai o te kākahi ‘It was suckled on the juice of the freshwater shellfish’ (Mead and Grove 2001); industriousness and hard work, Tāne rou kākahi, aitia te ure; tāne moe whare, kurua te takataka ‘If a man dredges mussels, love him well; if he sleeps at home, bang his head’, where women were advised to avoid lazy men; chieftainship, Te kākahi whakairoiro o te moana ‘The ornamented mollusc of the sea’, which alludes to the carved moko and ornaments worn by chiefs (Mead and Grove 2001); and rebukes, in this case to an inferior of lesser rank, Māu e kī mai te kākahi whakairoiro o te moana ‘Is it for you to speak as the ornamental mussel of the lake?’, where kākahi whakairoiro is a term that refers to a chief of high rank and a mottled orca (a dominant killer of the sea) (Mead and Grove 2001).

Tuna, generically ‘eels’, are a very highly prized freshwater resource and their significance and function is portrayed in the variety and type of whakataukī mentioned in the database. The references to tuna have a number of functions including warfare; He ua ki te pō, he tuna ki te ao ‘Rain at night, eels in the morning’ (Mead and Grove 2001). In these examples, ecological knowledge (e.g. of the movement of eels across the land during rain as they move to spawn) may be paired with important cultural messages. Thus, He ua ki te pō, he paewai ki te ao (Grove 1981) is an edict of tribal warfare describing a night attack in bad weather has the advantages of low visibility and masking of the sounds, and Moe ana te mata hī tuna, ara ana te mata hī taua ‘The eyes of the eel-fisher are closed in sleep but the eyes of those who fish for war parties remain open’ (Mead and Grove 2001), is applied to watchfulness in war. Other examples of tuna describe preparation techniques; Me te raparapa tuna ‘Like eels split open for drying’ (Mead and Grove 2001), Me te whata raparapa tuna e iri ana te tutu ‘The tutu berries are hanging like split eels’ (Mead and Grove 2001), which outline its preparation technique where tuna is split and hung on a stick in the sun to dry, and culinary practices; Huruhuru kai wawe, tuna whakaoho ‘Feathers eaten hastily, eels alarmed’ (Mead and Grove 2001), which notes the leaving of feathers on the birds prepared for eating and inadvertently consumed would cause birds and eels to leave their normal habitats, to proper preparation techniques, and other examples instruct us to be prepared; Nāu i whakatakoto i tō hīnaki i te wai tāwawarua anei te waituhi ka taha ‘You set your eel-pot during the main flood, after the first freshet had passed and therefore missed the descending eels’ (Mead and Grove 2001), outlines that effective actions must be carried out at the right time. In the following example, the morphological qualities of the tuna's slippery skin and its status as a prized food is used to contrast it to a loss where something worthwhile has slipped away; Kua kaheko te tuna i roto i aku ringaringa ‘The eel has slipped through my hands’ (Mead and Grove 2001).

Whakataukī may act to recall or recount historical events; He tāmure unahi nui ‘The snapper of big scales’ (Mead and Grove 2001), which refers to Tūtāmure, a great warrior leader of Te Wakanui, who was named for the tāmure that pricked Kahungunu's finger, and another event when Kahungunu called out to ask who was attacking his pā, and Tūtāmure replied with the following; Ka rangaranga te muri, ka tū ngā tuātara o tāmure ‘When the breeze blows gently will the spines of the snapper stand up’ (Mead and Grove 2001). Another whakataukī that is applied to someone who has been raised a noble birth and skilled to carry out difficult tasks mentions the nene, the part at the base of the tongue of the tāmure, which was the most prized part of the fish and only fed to elite and noted warriors; E kī ana ahau, i whāngaia koe ki te nene o te tāmure o Whangāpanui, kia tiu koe, kia oha ‘I think you were fed on the nene of the snapper of Whangāpanui so that you might be active and strong’ (Mead and Grove 2001). This example describes the capture of the chief Tamaruarangi and his son Te Rangitūmai and the words that Tamaruarangi spoke to encourage his son to escape and raise an avenging party.

The 38 references to ika are generic in nature containing a range of historical and didactic information on leadership, chieftainship, warfare and societal guidelines. Warfare is a frequent subject of whakataukī, where ika is used as an idiom for an enemy or to refer to a slain warrior, victim, or the first or second person slain in battle, Kei au te mātāika! ‘I have the honour of the first slain’ (Mead and Grove 2001), a veteran warrior Te ika a Whiro ‘Whiro's fish’ (Mead and Grove 2001), and to those lost in war where the god of war (Tū) is contrasted to the god of peace (Rongo) and their relationship, Te ika a Tū, te ika a Rongo ‘The fish of Tū, the fish of Rongo’ (Mead and Grove 2001). In the example, E kore e mau i a koe te whai i te ika iti, i rāoa ai Tamarereti, ka horo Maungaroa ‘You cannot win the chase of the little fish, by which Tamarereti was choked and Maungaroa fell’ (Mead and Grove 2001), a war stratagem is presented by contrasting a well-known whakataukī on preparation and small details, He meroiti te ika i rāoa ai a Tamarereti ‘It was a small fish that choked Tamarereti’ (Mead and Grove 2001), and He paku te ika i rāoa a Tamarereti ‘It was a small fish on which Tamarereti choked’ (Mead and Grove 2001), to a historical battle at Whetūmatarau. Tamarereti was a great navigator who sailed into the Antarctic waters only to choke to death while eating a small fish. Here the lesson relates to a little stratagem applied correctly can have outstanding results.

Conclusion

Qualitative and quantitative analyses of whakataukī together with word frequencies, temporal assignments, linguistic, historical and cultural cues, and network analyses combine to illustrate the wealth of traditional ecological knowledge contained in just one form of Māori oral tradition (Wehi et al. 2018). The sample of selected examples highlight the complexity of this intrinsic relationship and the various linguistic strategies and layers that were used to embed knowledge of place, space, history, religion, belief and tradition. These cultural lessons, historical recounts and practical observations provide invaluable insight on the type and nature of the interactions that Māori had – and continue to have – with marine and freshwater resources and the changing environmental, societal and cultural landscapes that they occur in. Oral tradition and knowledge of the Māori language can inform and stimulate new perspectives on marine and freshwater policy and practice in Aotearoa in invaluable ways, but it is an area that is often overlooked, undervalued and underestimated and one that requires innate knowledge of oral traditions and practical expertise of traditional ecological knowledge.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Hēmi Whaanga http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5415-9960

Priscilla Wehi http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9821-8160

Murray Cox http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1936-0236

Tom Roa http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3774-7891

Ian Kusabs http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1473-7447

Additional information

Funding

The Royal Society of New Zealand provided Marsden funding to H.W and P.M.W. [12-UOW-093] and Rutherford Fellowships to P.M.W. [RDF-14-LCR-001] and M.P.C. [RDF-10-MAU-001]. I.K. was funded through the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment programme on Cultural Keystone Species: Co-management and Restoration [C01X1616].