The Moa Hunters

Maori material culture has evolved over two main periods of Polynesian settlement. The first is known as the Archaic or Moa Hunter period during which the Polynesians made their first contact with the moa, a large struthious bird which supplied them with abundant food. Actually, some of the species were relatively small. These Polynesians utilised the moa for food while from its bones they manufactured ornaments, fish hooks, bird spear points, and other items. Moas were killed by spears and traps. The Moa Hunters also appear to have eaten out the tuatara (Sphenodon) on the mainland, as evidenced by the number of lower jaws, mingled with moa remains, found in middens, at Purakanui, Otago, and elsewhere.

The earliest C.14 carbon dating for the settlement of man in New Zealand is approximately 1,000 years ago; but it is likely that future archaeological research will indicate earlier settlements. The first requirements of a primitive people landing in a new country are comparatively simple and in this order: food, clothing, and shelter. In New Zealand food would be immediately available and abundant, but the manufacture of warm garments and adequate means of obtaining shelter and warmth at night were problems which could be solved only over a period of time.

From evidence it would appear that as the first abundance of moa gradually declined in given places, the settlers then entered upon a more varied programme of fishing, fowling, and the collection of molluscs, etc. Gradually permanent or semi-permanent villages were established, giving a pattern of settlements around the coasts, often in the neighbourhood of inlets and on the banks of rivers. This pattern of settlement persisted with variations until European times. Various canoes arrived at intervals dating from the first arrivals; but Andrew Sharp (1957) believes that any landfall made in New Zealand would be a rare occurrence and would involve only small groups of Polynesians.

The Moa Hunter people were the great adze makers of New Zealand and nowhere else has such efficiency and perfection in adze making been achieved. The work of Duff (1956) has shed much new light on adzes and adze classification. Adzes were required primarily for the manufacture of canoes for transport by sea and along rivers.

Following East Polynesian models, Duff divides Moa Hunter adzes into six classes based on cross section. Classes “one” and “two” are quadrangular in cross section, the first being tanged or reduced above, while the second has only an incipient grip above. Classes “three” and “four” are triangular in section, class three being hafted with the apex of the triangle to the haft and four with the base of the triangle to the haft. “Five” is laterally hafted and “six” is circular sectioned and includes many chisel-type adzes.

The Moa Hunter people wore necklaces and pendants of drilled shark teeth, Carcharinus and Carcharodon, reels of ivory, shell, or stone, tubes of bird bone, sperm whale teeth, and porpoise teeth. A large sperm whale tooth or stone copy was used as a central pendant. In addition to these, Duff has found cloak pins, needles with case, tattooing chisel, stone fish-hook shanks as well as bone with points often drilled for attachment. Golson (1959) reviews other Moa Hunter or Archaic material including barbed points of composite fish hooks, lure hooks with stone and bone shanks, and the chevroned amulet and a patu. This period of material culture is remarkable for its lack of weapons.

Classic Period

The last great phase resulting in the introduction of new culture elements were the adventurous voyages southward of groups of Polynesians from the central Pacific, in or about A.D. 1350. This settlement ushered in the Classic period of Maori culture. Well-known canoes associated with this period were Te Arawa, Tainui, Mataatua, Kurahaupo, Tokomaru, Takitimu, Aotea, and Horouta. It is evident that virile strains of Polynesians appeared on the scene from this time. The pa or hill fort became well established and new weapons of war were evolved. Agriculture gradually developed as well as religious conceptions and cultural activities.

It is likely that the coming of the “Fleet” ushered in a new era by the introduction of food plants. These were the kumara (Ipomoea batatas), the taro (Colocasia antiquorum), the uhi or yam (Dioscorea sp.), and the hue or gourd (Laginaria vulgaris). Most esteemed was the kumara which once grew as far south as Kaiapoi in the South Island. Cultivated foods came under the rulership of the god Rongo whose emblem was placed in fields with the growing crops, all work being undertaken under the direction of a tohunga (priest). Digging sticks (ko), spades (kaheru), and weeders (ketu) were the main tools used in cultivating the ground.

Adzes of the Classic Maori period are remarkable in being polished over the whole surface and having no grip or tang. The section is quadrangular. This is the usual position; but a small number are oval in section, while greenstone or stone adze types used as chisels are often circular in section. Greenstone ornaments of varying types also appeared. Ornamental combs were used in the hair and new types of fish hooks were developed.

Birds as Food

The forest and its products were tapu to the god Tane. This tapu was rigorously imposed and applied not only to all forest trees but in particular to those reserved for fowling purposes. Forest birds were taken according to season and under the direction of a tohunga who conducted all operations. Most esteemed were large wood pigeons ((Hemephaga novaeseelandae) which in season were accustomed to feed on the berries of the miro (Podocarpus ferrugineus). As this induced thirst in the birds, snares were set around nearby streams, and wooden troughs (waka keruru) were placed in trees and filled with water. Additional snares were set around the margins of the troughs. Wooden snaring perches (mutu kaka) were used for taking the bush parrot (Nestor occidentalis). These perches were usually operated from platforms built in the tree itself and the parrots were attracted to the spot by means of a live decoy. Bird spears furnished with barbed points, made usually from bone, were used to take bush birds. Some of these used in tall trees were as long as 30 ft.

To assist in the general operations, it was often customary for all to take annual tribal expeditions to the forest or its neighbourhood. The work was well organised. Experts attended to the snares while others kept troughs supplied with water. Birds were collected, plucked, and deboned after which they were cooked before a fire (ahi matiti), the prepared birds being spitted on straight rods. A wooden trough received the fat from the cooking birds. Cooked birds were preserved in their own fat, usually in gourd containers (taha huahua) and these were stored in the village pataka.

Three main ground birds were the weka, the kiwi, and the kakapo. Woodhens were caught by a fowler using a simple noose at the end of a stick, the birds being attracted by means of a peculiar call and the use of a lure. Kiwi and kakapo were hunted at night with dogs. Many other species of forest birds were utilised as food.

Fishing and Eeling

Line fishing was the favourite method of taking fish; and a large number of hooks and even fishing lines have been preserved in museums. Dried dogfish (Mustelus and Squalus) were much esteemed as well as other small species of shark and skate. This led to a development of a variety of shark hooks which were remarkable in having plain incurved points, particularly suitable for these and similar fish. Such hooks were often made from human bones, but sometimes whale bone was used. Fisher (1935) records the use of lower jawbones of dogs in the Thames district.

Composite hooks were made in two pieces and varied greatly in form. The shank was made of wood, bone, or stone, the point being usually of bone. In many of these hooks the incurving is remarkable, provision being made for a bait string in order to secure the bait to the hook. Barracouta hooks (okooko) had straight wooden shanks with a bone point inserted at the base. These were used on the surface to take barracouta (Thyrsites atun) which was a surface fish. Using a small stout rod, the fisherman threshed the hook about on the surface of the water for the voracious barracouta to swallow. Most specialised of trolling hooks was the pa kahawai, consisting of a slightly curved wooden shank, on the inner surface of which was inlaid a section of the shell of the paua (Haliotis australis). A bone hook with an inner barb was attached below and incurved. When polished, the paua takes on a remarkable lustre which attracts surface fish. The line works on a reciprocal fashion, winding itself up to the limit and unwinding in regular fashion.

New Zealand rivers are remarkable for their large eels (Anguilla dieffenbachi and Anguilla australis). Smaller seasonal fishes were much esteemed as, for example, the whitebait (inanga) (Galaxias attenuatus) and grayling (upokororo) (Prototroctes oxyrhynchus). But eels were a main and never-failing source of food and were much in demand, being preserved by sun drying for future consumption.

In larger rivers lampreys (Geotria australis) were common, and special traps were set at weirs to take the lampreys when they ascended the rivers to spawn. Similarly, eels were taken as they migrated to the sea in the autumn. Traps for eels and lampreys, termed hinaki, were made from the slim stems of the mange-mange (Lygodium articulatum), a climbing plant. The main frame of the hinaki was constructed of supplejack (Rhipogonum scandens) split longitudinally. In front of the hinaki was a poha or lead. Eels were also taken by hand or speared at night.

Natural Foods

Under natural conditions forest foods available were roots, pith, shoots, and leaves of selected trees. Fruit and berries were also eaten in season. Most important of the root foods were the rhizomes of the bracken fern (Pteris aquilina). Special preserves of fern, some more highly esteemed than others, were carefully conserved by all tribes. Bundles of rhizomes were collected and thoroughly pounded with a wooden pounder (patu aruhe) on a stone base. The starchy material thus separated was made into cakes which were cooked in hot ashes. Fern rhizome was also cleaned and chewed raw by commoners and slaves. (See alsoPlants, Edible.)

Clothing and Adornment

In central Polynesia women wore a kilt and men a loin cloth termed maro or mato. These garments were brought to New Zealand by the first waves of settlers who at the outset were faced with the problem of raw material, as the paper mulberry tree was originally absent from this country. Tradition tells us that the paper mulberry tree was introduced by the Tainui canoe. Cook saw a few in the far north and others were recorded on the East Coast. No garments from such trees are known to us today. But the early settlers found an excellent substitute in the indigenous flax (Phormium tenax), and from it they plaited loin cloths as well as kilted garments. Gradually, new types of garments made their appearance. A kilt or rapaki, often thickly woven, was used by both sexes in colder weather. The so-called modern piupiu is a garment derived from this kilt which sometimes had a piupiu fringe. To meet the colder and wetter conditions of New Zealand, a rain cloak, pake, was made from tags of raw flax, partly scraped, and set in close rows attached to the muka or plaited-fibre base. Several types of capes and cloaks were also used, many of the latter enveloping the whole body.

The most common means of personal ornamentation was a red colouring for the body and parts of the face. The red colouring matter was derived from red ochre or kokowai mixed with oil secured from the livers of sharks. Sometimes garments would become saturated with this substance; but it also protected the body from the bites of insects. Hairdressing was important, wives of chiefs undertaking this important task. It was usual for the hair to be drawn up well back from the face to form a topknot (tikitiki) on the crown of the head. In the topknot, feathers of birds such as the huia, the long-tailed cuckoo, the heron, etc., were worn. Ornamental combs of bone or wood were sometimes added.

The storing of feathers led in New Zealand to the construction of special boxes for their reception. Some of these were uncarved, but many were carved in more or less elaborate fashion. Such wooden receptacles shared with the canoe the name of waka, and were termed waka huia. Valuables such as greenstone ornaments and necklaces might also be stored in these waka. It is of interest to note that some of the finest of the carved waka huia come from North Auckland.

Ear ornaments were of a variety of types, the most prized being the elongate greenstone pendants, the straight forms being termed kurukuru and those bent at the end, kapeu. Some other forms were the poria kaka, the ring used on a tame parrot's leg; the matau, a hook form, and the koropepe, an eellike form. Common people contented themselves with the use of birds' wings and bright sea shells or parts thereof.

It is possible that many Maori pendants, in particular the greenstone tiki, were worn in order to obtain some magical benefit. The tiki most prized as a breast ornament is carved in the fashion of a depressed human form, the head being bent to one side; but its characteristics are common to the Maori carvings of last century. The tiki is said to be so named after Tiki, the traditional name of the first man created by Tane. Important tiki might be handed down through many generations.

Muka, the fibre of the flax plant, was dressed by the use of a marine shell, much scraping and scutching ensuing before the fibre was washed and pounded. Stone pounders (patu muka) were used to soften the fibre. Weaving sticks (turuturu) were in pairs. In making large cloaks two pairs were necessary to keep the operative edge at the correct height. The most simple method of garment making was that also adopted in the manufacture of fish traps, namely, single-pair twining. Weaving sticks were stuck in the ground and between them were stretched the weaving elements, vertical and horizontal. A two-pair weft technique was developed in New Zealand and used for all superior garments.

Men's belts were known as tatua and women's as tu. The man's belt was the more ornate, a common form being the tatua pupara in which the plaited fabric was doubled over and the two edges loosely sewn together, a task for the bone needle.

Houses and Domestic Life

The warmth-loving and scantily clad Polynesians soon discovered that at night, particularly during winter, it was warmer to sleep below ground level than on the surface. In New Zealand, therefore, most of the buildings were excavated over the floor area to a depth of anything up to 18 in. and, in some instances, to 3 or 4 ft. This follows a Northern Hemisphere custom and is the response of primitive man to a major environmental discomfort. Side walls, if exposed, were piled with earth to add to the security and warmth within. A small charcoal fire surrounded with stones added to the interior warmth. Walls of sleeping houses not seen from the exterior were usually of tree-fern logs set upright as these minimised the risk of fire.

The first settlers appear to have introduced the oval and circular types of Polynesian houses, modified to suit local conditions. The oval house had sometimes a porch attached (Phillipps, 1952). This house persisted right down to the end of last century among the muttonbirders of the South Island.

In the Classic Maori period, which followed the migration of 1350, rectangular houses became better established while, in the North Island, circular and oval houses were gradually relegated for use as kitchens, storehouses for implements, and the like. In the South Island oval sleeping houses persisted until the arrival of Europeans. All rectangular houses had two main upright poles which supported the ridge pole or tahu. From the ridge pole depended the rafters (heke), which were supported below by main wall slabs (poupou), securely sunk in the ground. With the earth well piled up at the sides, such a house was known as a wharepuni or warm house. Larger houses of assembly gradually developed. These were used for tribal gatherings, etc., but were not common until after European contact when steel tools were used for felling trees and working timber. Such houses were whare runanga. Many were ornamented with carving, while spaces between the poupou were filled with ornamental panels of tuku-tuku designs.

Kitchens were for the most part primitive structures barely adequate to keep out the rain, though in large communities log houses were built, the logs being usually of mamaku (Cyathea medullaris), while in others logs were placed horizontally and used as required for fuel. Less consideration was accorded to cooks and those concerned with the preparation of food than to any other section of the community. As food destroyed the tapu of man, kitchens were established well away from the houses of chiefs. All food was consumed outside dwellings in the open air. It was usual to have two meals per day, the main meal being in the evening. In the kitchen was the earth oven, or umu, also known as hangi, a pit some 3 to 4 ft in diameter and up to 18 in. deep. Quantities of wood, large and small, were piled in the pit, and selected oven stones (taikowhatu) were spread over the wood. As the wood burnt, the stones became heated and gradually sank into the oven cavity. Embers were raked aside and the stones levelled out, some being put aside for placing on top of the food when it was arranged in the pit. The pit was liberally soused with water; quantities of green stuff were placed over the stones, and then food such as kumara and fish, and greens such as sow thistle, were arranged in alternate layers. The hot stones set aside were then placed on top. Again liberal quantities of water were used, and a mat to cover all. On this the earth was piled. Food was ready in one and a half hours.

Mats or whariki were much used on floors of whares. Some were coarse and made of raw flax used in strips while others were plaited with finer strands of partly prepared flax, each strand passing over two others in the plaiting. The making of mats was women's work and some became specialists in this work.

Fire was produced by the friction of wood upon wood, the fire plough of Polynesia. Three trees supplied the necessary material. These were the kaikomako, (Pennantia corymbosa), makomako (Aristotelia serata) and the mahoe (Melicytus ramiflorus). The upper rubbing stick was known as hika or kaurima and the lower grooved stick as kaunoti. It was correct and customary in firemaking that a woman should steady the lower stick while a man operated the rubbing stick. In ritual ceremonies sacred fires were kindled to add mana to the proceedings.

Stone Tools

Primitive tools in daily use in New Zealand were flake knives, sometimes even pebble tools, usually manufactured from chert or obsidian. Flake knives were used in the kitchen and for many cutting purposes. Some had secondary chipping giving a sawlike edge. Chert was quarried at many specified points; but obsidian had its main source at Mayor Island (Tuhua) in the Bay of Plenty. To Moa Hunter and Maori alike the treasured obsidian became of much importance, partly because of the ease with which chips might be struck from the parent stone and used as cutting tools. It is likely that a brisk mercantile traffic in obsidian was established for a period of several centuries before the discovery of greenstone. Obsidian was also used for drill points on primitive reciprocal hand drills, by women for cutting their flesh at tangis for the dead, and by men as a flensing tool for cutting up marine mammals which were cast ashore at intervals. Hair cutting was also done with an obsidian tool. Hammer stones for striking flakes from the main core were usually held in the palm of the hand or between the fingers and were of a hard quartzite. Rasps, burnishers, and all grades of polishing stones were manufactured as required, many of varying types of sandstone. A few also were of bone or slate. These stone tools were constantly used by all Polynesian inhabitants of New Zealand.

About 1,000 years ago a new era commenced with the discovery of greenstone or pounamu, a hard fine-grained nephrite rock, first supplies of which came from the Arahura and Taramakau Rivers on the West Coast of the South Island. Circulation of greenstone supplies would be a gradual process over many years, and some recognised form of barter or exchange of presents must have been used by northern tribes to secure the valued pounamu. The possession of huia feathers and obsidian by northern tribes, as well as the finest garments manufactured from Taranaki flax, would place the northerners in a strong strategic position for securing greenstone by peaceful means. It is possible that ownership of greenstone cutting tools would be responsible for the reduced manufacture of stone adzes evident after the arrival of the “Fleet”.

Weapons

In the early Moa Hunter period it seems that warfare was unknown (Duff, 1956). We can picture new settlers in a new land with food in abundance having no room for minor quarrels and tribal jealousies. But with increasing population and the addition of virile strains from the homeland, the pattern of life would gradually change, after which raids and counter raids would become a recognised procedure.

In Polynesia we find a short weapon or club and a long weapon, a spear. In New Zealand with its abundance of forest trees, new long weapons evolved and became more specialised. The same was true of short club-like weapons. The two main long weapons, the taiaha and the tewhatewha, were unique in being light and used equally by both hands. They could be used only by an adept who was an expert in speed of movement and rapid manipulation. The short club-like weapons (patu) were made of wood, bone, or stone, the most highly prized being the meremere or patu pounamu, made of greenstone and often handed down in families as an heirloom.

The Pa

The hill fort or pa was erected on suitable hills or ridges as well as on strategic situations with sea, river, lake, or swamp forming a natural barrier on one side. All pas varied with terrain and locality. Stockades, as well as trenches and ramparts, were built to protect the sides open to enemy attack. Inside the pa was established a village with sleeping huts, stores of kumara, and other foods with specially erected pataka as well as pits for water or special access to a spring if possible. A wooden gong (pahu) situated on the highest point was beaten to warn of an approaching enemy.

Fighting stages were erected over gateways and other vulnerable points to give protection and from these darts and stones would be thrown down on an enemy. Fire was greatly feared by the defenders of a pa. A hostile force would endeavour to use red-hot stones and fire brands in an endeavour to cause panic by setting fire to the buildings which were inside the enclosure.

Every pa had its protective deity. This was often a special stone which retained the mana or prestige of the pa and was buried under one of the corner posts. In general the pa was the stronghold of the tribe, a place of refuge when danger threatened and security for all in time of war.