Research - Maori Space & Time

Notes from NZ History lectures [Bill McKay]

The past is always in front of us (cf. Western view that it is behind), there for guidance and the future is behind us, as very few can see the future and what it has in store for us.

Maori word for North is the same as that for bottom/beneath (raro) which is why some early maps are shown 'upside down'

• importance of water is shown by proximity of early settlements to the coast, no roads; transport was via boat
• maps often drawn qualitatively (more important things appearing larger) so that a good harbour would be drawn larger than a poor one

 Other cultures of the South Pacific accept time and the processes of time as part of building, they accept mortality as part of architecture.

• 'mutability' - buildings, like people, develop and grow old but can (unlike people) be rebuilt, that is, they can change over time. They do not have to remain a snapshot in time - buildings must remain a useful tool, change over time to fulfil different purposes if needed.

Excerpts from 'Maori Time: Notions of Space, Time & Building Form' (Bill Mckay & Antonia Walmsley)

• Maori architecture may not conform to the Western model of the three dimensional object in space, and could also be understood as existing in time rather than space.
• The meeting house, or whare, does not emphasise the back at all - it is not important, it is a building that 'exists in time' - that is, only the front which you enter is important. Like meeting a person - you only look at the front/address the front, not the back. Only the exterior front is important in that initial relationship building process.
• 'Spatialisation of time' - in this concept the present is all important
• the dimensions of time have been collapsed into space
• this occurred when time began to be measured and quantified. It was no longer tied to the cyclic rhythm of nature and to the ancestor's rhythm of life and death.
• So when colonisation occurred, Maori were not only physically separated from their land but also dislocated from their culture with the Western concept of measured time:
• the intimate, mimetic reciprocal relationship between the human being, nature and the living past of ancestors, was replaced by a time experienced as space and mediated by a history 'frozen' into a mechanically measured dimension by genealogically unrelated people - Donna Awatere in 'Maori Sovereignty' (1984)
• so land lost its sprititual meaning...the squeezing of time into the spatial present leads to a devaluing of the past, of old people, of old ways, and of old things..

'Maori Time' - all people who live in urban industrial societies have their lives regulated by measured time. However, on the marae, the Maori concept of time takes over - slows down the rhythm of life. Measure time becomes meaningless as the values of relating to people, discussion and the arrival of consensus take over.

• Maori word for the future = muri; also meaning behind, because it cannot be seen (cf. Western view is that the future is in front of you).
• the past is always in front of us, there for guidance and the future is behind us, as very few can see the future and what it has in store for us - Maori view on the past/future.
• In the West, people define their nationality spatially through their location, a country but in the Pacific it tends to be defined tribally instead, through who they are related to rather than a particular region.

The Marae & Whare nui

Meeting House (whare nui)

• may be referred to in a number of ways: whare tipuna or whare tupuna, (ancestral house) whare whakairo (carved house), whare nui (large house), whare hui (meeting house), whare moe or whare puni (sleeping house) or whare runanga (council house).
• the whare is nearly always named after an ancestor, symbolically designed to represent the chief and his ancestors.
• in front of the whare is a tekoteko (carved figure) on the roof and at the entrance to the whare -represents the ancestor's head. The "maihi", or carved parts of the tekoteko which slope downwards from the whare, represent the ancestor's arms, held out as a welcome to visitors

Meeting House & Space

The Meeting House is not intended to be seen as an object in the round - one does not walk around it but has a facade, a face and is often metaphorically a body, the personification of ancestors.

• cannot just make a casual visit to a mare to visit a meeting house, there is a well-known series of events/protocols which take time.
• the house is experienced through a series of approaching steps and thresholds which are all primarily experienced in time rather than space.
• it is not intended to be seen as an object in space; one does not walk around the house and look at the sides and rear.

We experience the building in the same way that we experience the land or a person, thought a series of steps in time - our engagement with people and buildings exists more in time than space.

 

Welcome protocols

see also http://www.korero.maori.nz/forlearners/protocols/marae.html

• When the visitors, "manuhiri", advance into the Marae, they remain close together and advance at a slow respectful pace.
• The women of the marae perform the welcome, the Te karanga : "Come forward, visitors from afar, Welcome, welcome!" (Haere mai, Haere mai). Bring with you the spirits of your dead, that they may be greeted , that they may be mourned. Ascend onto our Marae, ascend the sacred Marae of our people. Welcome, Welcome. (Haere mai, Haere mai)"
• Usually visitors will stop for a minute or two, in order to remember those who have died, before continuing into the marae itself. Once the visitors are inside the space, greetings and speeches take place. The speaker moves backwards and forwards as he speaks. Mostly, speeches are followed by waiata (songs) by the women.
• A traditional welcome = a "powhiri", plus hongi which is the mingling of breath between the two people, representing unity. Often this is performed three times (first is a greeting to the person, the second acknowledges ancestors, and the third honours life in this world).