Story: Te tāhere manu – bird catching

More links and websites

• Pouakani Report 1993

  This extract from the Pouakani Report gives examples of bird snaring and spearing in practice. The Pouakani block straddles an area between the Tainui and Te Arawa peoples.

• The kereru yesterday and today

  This article by Hemi Bennett from Te Ao Hou magazine (December 1957) discusses traditional ways of trapping kererū.

More suggestions and sources

• Best, Elsdon. Forest lore of the Maori: with methods of snaring, trapping, and preserving birds and rats, uses of berries, roots, fern-root, and forest products, with mythological notes on origins, karakia used, etc. Wellington: Te Papa Press, 2005 (originally published 1942).
• Riley, Murdoch. Maori bird lore: an introduction. Paraparaumu: Viking Sevenseas, 2001.