“Grandfather?” a young boy asked, “Why did our people come here? To Aotearoa? Why didn’t we stay in Hawaiki?” The grandfather gazed into the fire a moment before saying, “Well my boy. Long ago our people did live on Hawaiki, but so did many others. To the point that it was difficult for Hamakona to catch enough fish for himself and his wife, Moana. One day after returning from another wasted day on the seas, a mighty bird landed before him. The bird spoke, ‘Fear not Hamakona, I shall lead you to a new land, one where you and your family shall not be wanting for anything. Get your wife, your boat, and some supplies. We leave tonight and have a long journey ahead of us.” Hamakona and Moana followed the Great Bird for many days and nights, before Moana spotted a single white cloud that herald their arrival in our new home. In time Hamakona would return to Hawaiki to tell them of our land he would bring with him many families, skilled pottery workers, kuri (dogs), manuki (chickens), and ofai (pigs) to set up a new society on new shores”
One of the major impediments to the development of Maori civilization was simply the amount of time that they had between Aotearoa between Polynesian discovery and settlement and European discovery and settlement. So in order to have a realistic chance at developing a civilization Maori would need to land on the islands far sooner. It is here that we run into a second problem, the way that the currents of the Southern Pacific flow a Polynesian canoe (or fleet of canoes) could not have simply sailed down to Aotearoa without careful navigation. In short it would have been impossible to discover the islands without some understanding of where they were.
So how did Polynesians discover them at all? Well in the story of Kupe, he and his wife, Kuramarotini, discovered and named Aotearoa while he was hunting a giant octopus that his competitor was using to catch fish. However, it is more likely that he was led there after seeing a volcanic eruption. Either way he discovered the islands circa 1280 CE.
Step back with me a moment to the shores of Tahiti circa 800 BCE, it is the middle of the time of what we would call the Lapita Culture but this would name Proto-Maori. A time in Polynesian where obsidian tools were in common use and Polynesians had the ability to make intricate pottery. A young man, stands on the shore, let’s imagine that he is a fourth or fifth son of a high ranking family, putting him at the bottom of society, or at least as low as you can get as a member of a prestigious family. He sees some birds fly over head, now he’s a smart man, he understands that the birds must be flying towards some new island. He’s also an ambitious man, he understands that he could build a new society on these islands with himself as the leader. As he sets off in his waka (canoe) to follow the birds, he could not have possibly known that he would become the fabled Hamakona, father of the world’s southernmost civilization.
One of the major impediments to the development of Maori civilization was simply the amount of time that they had between Aotearoa between Polynesian discovery and settlement and European discovery and settlement. So in order to have a realistic chance at developing a civilization Maori would need to land on the islands far sooner. It is here that we run into a second problem, the way that the currents of the Southern Pacific flow a Polynesian canoe (or fleet of canoes) could not have simply sailed down to Aotearoa without careful navigation. In short it would have been impossible to discover the islands without some understanding of where they were.
So how did Polynesians discover them at all? Well in the story of Kupe, he and his wife, Kuramarotini, discovered and named Aotearoa while he was hunting a giant octopus that his competitor was using to catch fish. However, it is more likely that he was led there after seeing a volcanic eruption. Either way he discovered the islands circa 1280 CE.
Step back with me a moment to the shores of Tahiti circa 800 BCE, it is the middle of the time of what we would call the Lapita Culture but this would name Proto-Maori. A time in Polynesian where obsidian tools were in common use and Polynesians had the ability to make intricate pottery. A young man, stands on the shore, let’s imagine that he is a fourth or fifth son of a high ranking family, putting him at the bottom of society, or at least as low as you can get as a member of a prestigious family. He sees some birds fly over head, now he’s a smart man, he understands that the birds must be flying towards some new island. He’s also an ambitious man, he understands that he could build a new society on these islands with himself as the leader. As he sets off in his waka (canoe) to follow the birds, he could not have possibly known that he would become the fabled Hamakona, father of the world’s southernmost civilization.