He Reo Wahine by Lachy Paterson & Angela Wanhalla

Author:Lachy Paterson & Angela Wanhalla
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Māori
Publisher: Auckland University Press
Published: 2017-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Collaborative and collective writing

As a body of writing, the petitions might be formulaic, but the messages they contain are not. While they all share a common focus on dispossession, they also demonstrate the variety of ways in which Māori women sought to challenge the state, and the specific strategies they used to articulate their feelings. We can see this more clearly when we look at the original petitions and their associated document ation as the petitions slowly moved their way through official processes. Petitioners’ strategies included the use of scribes, persistent and regular petitioning, and a willingness to address their claims to a variety of forums in writing, of which the petition is just one example.

Intermediaries played important roles in the petitioning process. Maraea’s petition (No. 309), outlined earlier, was sent to the Native Department, who in turn traded memoranda with Native Land Court officials. Chief Judge William Gilbert Mair acknowledged that he could not ‘understand why her name was omitted from the List unless her own people did it intentionally’. However, he asserted that the court was not at fault if the name had not been submitted, and that Maraea’s daughter, Hēni Pore (Jane Foley), had been present and should have looked after her mother’s interests. The officials debated by what means it might be possible to include her name on the Crown Grant, but given that the subdivision had not been completed, it seemed reasonable that this could be effected. Maraea (or Pihohau or Pikokau) of Te Arawa was an elderly woman; she had been taken captive by Ngāpuhi after the fall of Mokoia in 1823, 65 years earlier.26 It is doubtful Maraea was familiar with the court’s processes.

Nothing happened for several years, until in 1892 Maraea wrote to John Ballance, Premier and Native Minister, requesting that her case be revisited. Although the initial letter was written in Māori, it is clearly influenced in style by formal English correspondence. Maraea signs it with an ‘X’, so it is likely that her daughter, Hēni Pore, who had had an extensive formal education, composed it for her.

Katikati

Maehe 11 [1892]

To His Honourable the Native Minister

E Pa, kua whaihonore au inaianei ki te tuhi atu kia koe, i runga i te mana kua whakawhiwhia atu kia koe, no kona ka tukua atu tenei tono aku kia koe hei ata hurihuri mau, notemea kua pa tetehi mate nui noa atu kia hau, ko taku mate tenei, kahore aku whenua e noho nei au i te ao marama. Ko nga whenua o aku tupuna i tika nei kia taka mai kia ahau, he maha, he nui atu hoki, a i runga i nga whakahaere he a te Kooti Whenua Maori, a etehi tangata hoki o te iwi, ka kore atu ena whenua ia hau, ko nga whenua e tika kia taka mai kia hau kei Rotorua. I mahi nui ano taku tamahine a Heni Pore (Jane Foley) ki te whakahaere i taku take, a he roa te taima kahore i tu i te Kooti.

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