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oral tradition 

NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand oral traditions

     The colonization of this country began about a thousand years before the arrival of the first Europeans. The first town that settled in New Zealand came from Eastern Polynesia: The Maori. Legend has it that the discovery of the country occurred in Kupe, which is given the name of Aotearoa: "Land of the great white cloud."

    Before writing, oral transmission stories and oratory captured many of the stories of the origins of Aotearoa and the creation of the world,thus for the Maori people, was Kupe, who discovered Aoetearoa, his people, who lived in a land called Hawaiiki, subsisted essentially with fishing; When one day their fishermen arrived empty handed back home, tragedy was chewed. Legend has it that an octopus snatched the fishermen's capture and threatened the starvation of the entire clan. The wise Kupe went in search of the octopus and pursued it to the high seas; He ended up arriving at Aoetearoa, where his search ceased. Later, his people would follow his instructions and go canoeing in search of these lands, which would end up settling.

     According to Maori mythology: God Rangi (Father Sky) and the Goddess Pope (Mother Earth) were the first gods, who lay together to create the rest of the gods, their progeny: Tane, god of the jungle, Rongo, god of cultivated plants, Tangaoa, god of fish and reptiles, Huamia, god of wild plants, Tu, god of war and Tawhiri, god of storms.

     Rangi and Papa lived facing each other in an indivisible embrace, from which their children could not escape, but Tane, the eldest of six brothers, grew tired of living in darkness, enclosed between his sky father and his earth mother. He was the cause of their separation, pushing his father to his head and his mother with his feet to break that hug.  He decided to turn away from them and, doing so, created the world of light (Te Ao Mārama), the world of today.

     After this, Tane placed the Sun and the Moon in the firmament, and then created the first woman, Hine, with whom he married, from whose union his sons were born who would be the first Polynesians.

   Tawhiri became very angry with his brother Tane because he did not want his parents separated and he punished him by creating great hurricanes and storms over Tane's forests.

   There are, for example, the origin of the New Zealand island or the story of how Maui fished the North Island:

    Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga was a daring and intelligent demigod who liked to push the limits. When his brothers planned to exclude him from his fishing trip, Māui hid himself in the front of the canoe and showed himself only when they were already out to sea. On that fishing trip, Maui fished his largest prey, the North Island.Mount Hikurangi, located in the East Cape on the North Island, is said to have been the first part of the Māui fish that emerged from the sea. This mountain is sacred to the members of the local Ngāti Porou tribe, who are considered direct descendants of Māui.

      One of the most outstanding curiosity of all these stories, is that many of them are represented in tattoos. The Maori Indians tattooed their faces to distinguish which tribe they belonged to, but they marked their skin with the stories of legends and their battles. Stories and tattoos that passed, like inheritance, from parents to children.

     They used the tattoo, or "Moko" or "Ta Moko" as they call it there, as a necessary element to understand their origins.

     This custom and tradition has remained to this day, where Maori tattoos are not only decorative elements, but for those who wear them, they have a unique meaning and give them a very special strength.

    You can mark your body skin with “Moko” if you want, but not your face, “Moko” for the face is forbidden, is just for ancient members of the tribes or direct descendants.

     Most of this rich oral tradition of the Maori people was collected by European scholars at the end of the 19th century, aware that this people was destined to disappear as a result of the wars and diseases brought from the continent. Some of the most important legends were published then, and many of them became part of the national consciousness. Almost all the literary material was grouped in the libraries and was considered an emblem of the historical archive. The Maori culture have been embraced since then, by European intellectuals.

     Shortly after the arrival of the Europeans in New Zealand, the story and Maori legends of oral transmission were completed with stories written by the first travelers, such as those of Captain James Cook, who visited the country in 1769. During the first hundred years of European settlements (from 1820 to 1920), the most important texts were those corresponding to newspapers or true stories that spoke of the life of the pioneers, as is the case of The first year of the settlement of Canterbury (1863) by Samuel Butler.

     In 1830, the first book was published in New Zealand. By the twentieth century, the authors were expanding their literature to deal with land issues, geographical isolation and the emergence of a national identity

     Maori people always has been a very spiritual people. Their love and respect for the territory that surrounds them, and their faith in the elements of nature, has made this culture one of the strongest in history, they knew how to earn the respect of the old English settlers, who not only failed to impose their culture, but accepted the Maori culture and allowed the coexistence of both on the island (today the official languages of New Zealand they are both English and Maori). The British Crown signed in 1840 an agreement with the main Maori chiefs by which the New Zealand islands formally became a colony. The agreement, known as the Waitangi Treaty, is still discussed today because there have been two versions, one in Maori and one in English, with a considerably different content.

      Before the signing of the treaty, British merchants, governors and missionaries lived on the island and, although they were convinced of the superiority of their civilization, they were fascinated and admired with many of the cultural customs of the islands. They lived with the tribes and some married their wives. This contrasts with the situation in neighboring Australia, where the British despised Aboriginal culture from the start.

   The teaching is mostly taught in English and as a result, New Zealand has become an alternative country to learn and improve this language, with a culture and traditions different from the Anglo-Saxon European countries. In some institutions the Maori language is used, because schools were nationalized in Maori in 1989 to safeguard their language and customs.

    Maori Kura Kaupapa primary schools have Maori as their primary language of instruction, and education is based on the culture and values ​​of this aboriginal people. They tend to cover the year from study 1 to year 8 and less widespread are the Wharekura that welcome students up to the year 13. The Wananga are institutions of higher education based on Maori principles and which promotes training in the Maori Language. With this strategy the State demonstrated that it was possible to make two systems compatible with a shared curriculum; it is estimated that there are 50,000 Maori who speak their native language fluently. The New Zealanders today share with pride, the cultural richness of Maori heritage, in many Maraes (headquarters of meetings of the Maori), there they continue telling myths and legends, the call to all this group of stories, purakas

Conclusion

New Zealand has an oral tradition and a very rich Maori culture that endures to this day. Many of the New Zealanders are descendants of Maories and therefore much of their culture and language are in force today. Many of its traditions are part of the national identity of this beautiful country since we can find even TV in Maori language, the population continues to teach and transmit their culture to their new generations, in addition to keeping in mind that by joining with the English colonies a lot of English customs and traditions are also impregnated in the culture of the Kiwis. So New Zealand is the best example of how a native and foreign culture can coexist despite the passage of time and many of the tensions that occurred in the past. It is possible to live with a native culture while learning the foreign language and these traditions can be transmitted without forgetting that heritage of each country.