The jacket cover tells us that Best was born at Porirua in 1856, worked on a sheep station in Poverty Bay and lived with the Tuhoe people in the Ureweras. “Nine years before his death in 1931, Sir Apirana Ngata said of him, ‘There is not a member of the Maori race who is fit to wipe the boots of Elsdon Best in the matter of knowledge of the lore of the race to which we belong’.”
Today, Best and to a lesser extent his brother-in-law Percy Smith and a few other Europeans such as George Grey are the primary sources of Maori lore, if not the only sources. Maori lore has come down via Europeans and is presently being rewritten by Maoris.
Tuhoe is a tome of over a thousand pages which was compiled by Best from voluminous notes he made of discussions with Tuhoe tohunga, principally Paitini Wi Tapeka of Ruatahuna and Tutakangahau of Maungapohatu. It includes a significant section of cosmogonic and anthropogenic myths; that is, stories regarding the Maori pantheon of gods as well as a supreme being called Io.
Best writes, (Tuhoe, p. 1027):
“From what this old man [Tutakangahau] said on the subject, I gathered that Io was the primal god, the original god who existed in the very beginning of things, before the sky and earth were produced, though it was not stated that Io formed these. … From what Tutaka said about the lower orders of tohunga, it seems probable that they would not be allowed to take part in the ritualistic functions pertaining to Io. It is quite evident that this mystical concept of a primal god was an extremely ancient one among the Maori people, and certainly not due to the teachings of Christian Missionaries in the last century.”
I have posted previously on books by Hirini Mead (here) and Ani Mikaere (here) on this topic. Both acknowledge Best and Smith; both subscribe to the myths of the Maori gods (which I pointed out are similar to the Greek gods); both are derisive of Io which they claim is a recent Christian import; nevertheless, both admit that Io is now present in Maori lore.
Mikaere writes (He Rukuruku Whakaaro, p. 309):
“There is, however, one rendering of the stories that will not be included as part of this enquiry. It is the so-called ‘superior’ or ‘esoteric’ version that first appeared in the publications of Percy Smith and Elsdon Best during the early years of the twentieth century. Also known as ‘the Io cult’, it is now widely acknowledged as having been ‘influenced by Christian and Western thought in general’ and doubt has been cast on its authenticity. … As Calman has rightly observed, “it is difficult to find two cultural traditions more contrasting than the European and the Polynesian, so separately did they develop over the millennia’.”
It seems to me that what is happening within Maoridom is equivalent to the Greek shift from the pre-Socratic myths of gods to the monotheistic Socratic thought of Plato in his story of the God creating the cosmos in the Timaeus, and his associated Theory of Forms which are still relevant to philosophy.
Following on from Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Jews also had a concept of a monotheistic God, but without the Greek rational thought. The story of Jesus in the New Testament was a literary device intended by Jewish writers, trained in Platonism by Stoics and Cynics at Greek universities, to convey to the Jewish masses the influence of Greek philosophy on their Jewish thought.
By incorporating the idea of a monotheistic God into Maori mythology, the Maoris are going down the same path as the first Christians. Bear in mind that theology and philosophy were one and the same back in the day. For example, in Aquinas (1225-1274) along with the Platonic monotheist God there is a synthesis with Aristotle’s Uncaused Cause, which Aquinas says is what people call ‘God’. From there the West progressed to Newton, and to Hawking and the Theory of Everything. If the Maoris follow this progression in their own way, they will forgo the pantheon of gods and acquire rational knowledge. We will then have a homogenous culture in New Zealand, and perhaps one with some freshness.
There are however, people who are trying to stop the Maoris from taking the first step from the gods to a single Creator, such as Mead and Mikaere. They are trying to stop the Maoris from progressing into the Western future and they are instead restraining Maoris in their traditional past.
So, imagine my disquiet when I read “The Great Spiritual Rebrand - Now Featuring the Waitangi Treaty Clause” and the appended Comments which disparage the idea that Maoris should adapt the Nativity according to their race (here). In my opinion, that assumption indicates a way for the Maoris to get out of mythology and into Christianity and all that entails, including Western science and technology, which they have so far failed to achieve. Whose permission should they need to do that?
Note that the Europeans did much the same and have even placed the Nativity in the setting of a snow storm when they celebrate Christmas in the northern winter. There are various races which have done the same thing as the Maoris: Comments on the article claim that the Nativity has been revised for Japanese, Indian, African and Papua New Guinean audiences.
Indeed, Christianity requires inclusivity: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28, King James Version. Paul was from Tarsus, incidentally; a Greek university town.)
As for using Christian symbolism for Treaty propaganda purposes, should we cynically scorn the Maoris for adopting it or naively scoff at the Europeans for abandoning it? We should first identify the influence and relevance of religion before deciding on its use. Note that it does seem to be working for the Maoris, so why do we handicap ourselves by avoiding it?
Barrie Davis is a retired telecommunications engineer, holds a PhD in the psychology of Christian beliefs, and can often be found gnashing his teeth reading The Post outside Floyd’s cafe at Island Bay.
References
Barrie Davis: Maori Myths - Colonial Realities, 17 November 2025
https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/11/barrie-davis-maori-myths-colonial.html
Barrie Davis: Matauranga Maori is a Myth, 13 August 2025
https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/08/barrie-davis-matauranga-maori-is-myth.html
Steven Gaskell: The Great Spiritual Rebrand - Now Featuring the Waitangi Treaty Clause, 23 November 2025 https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/11/steven-gaskell-great-spiritual-rebrand.html
2 comments:
Ah, I remember as a Teachers Training College student in the 60s reading much of Elsdon Best. Fascinating. Shocked by the foaming spittal of Rangi Walker our "Anthropology" lecturer loathing his white students. Also the tomes of the Polynesian Society. All of them will be old egg cartons now.
Whilst the perpetration of other religions is largely by private subscription and donation, the te reo versions are contrived and taught mostly by public subsidy of insurgency groups and at public expense, as in preschools, schools and after.
Sour, cynical Walker largely kicked off the modern subversive maori studies industry. Despite the income, I don’t know how his European wife tolerated the endless anti pakeha invective. He chose to pronounce process as in orange and the trait persists throughout maoridom captured by his brainwashing. RNZ have an excellent 2004 interview with Kim Hill.
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