Signposts – a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Mary Ann Martin

I recently saw the play On the upside-down of the world at Downstage Theatre in Wellington. Written by New Zealand playwright Arthur Meek and featuring Laurel Devenie in an impressive solo performance, it dramatises the life of Mary Ann Martin, an early English settler in New Zealand and wife of the country’s first chief justice, William Martin. It is based on her posthumously published book Our Maoris (1884).

The play charts Mary Ann Martin’s transformation from a genteel English lady conducting awkward, cringe-worthy conversions with Māori on her arrival in 1842 to a hard-working colonial who thrives in her new home. This transformation is represented by her changing attire. She begins fully dressed in hat and crinoline. The hat comes off first, followed by the crinoline, until she’s left wearing a simple, patched dress. Later in the play she wears a woollen rug lined with feather-like fabric in imitation of Māori.

She becomes fluent in the Māori language and gains great respect for the people and their customs. She rails against ignorant English visitors who denigrate the intelligence of Māori and bitterly opposes land laws and post-war confiscations which transfer the land to the hands of settlers, ever-growing in numbers.

Devenie’s performance is powerful and gripping, so we suffer with Mary as she sees control slipping from Māori and the tide turning towards war. We also share in her personal pain when she miscarries during a trip around the Rotorua area, ending her and her husband’s hopes for children.

The end for Mary is bitter – her husband is relieved from his post after complaining about the treatment of Māori, and her beloved Māori foster son, whom she called Sancho after a character in the novel Don Quixote, is killed during the land wars. She laments on receiving this news as she has heard Māori women do.

I was tremendously moved by this play and Mary Ann Martin’s story. But is it history? Well, not entirely.

I read Mary Ann Martin‘s Dictionary of New Zealand biography (DNZB) entry before going, so I’d have some notion of her life story. After the play ended and I recovered, I started to think about the gaps between the entry and the play.

The entry didn’t mention a foster son called Sancho and said that William Martin resigned from his post because of ill health, as does William Martin’s DNZB entry. I got Our Maoris out of the library and discovered that Sancho was actually a grown Māori man and seems to have been more like a servant. As my colleague Jock pointed out, religion was entirely absent from the play, yet the DNZB entries and Our Maoris make it quite clear that religion was a central concern in their lives.

Does this flexibility with the ‘facts’ really matter? In a blog post on the Auckland Theatre Company (ATC) website Arthur Meek is quoted as saying ‘It’s not a history play. It’s a play about who we are and how we’ve come to be like we are.’

I’m not sure what he means by that first sentence, because the play is about a real woman and is based on her writings. Perhaps it’s a way of saying that he’s employed some artistic licence with respect to historical facts. Many writers working with historical subjects do this – it’s a valid technique, but I think the audience needs to know it has been employed.

I’m not so sure that the play’s audience will realise this, unless they have prior knowledge of Mary Ann Martin’s life. A review on Kiwiblog says ‘the play is based on the actual history of that period,’ which suggests the reviewer thinks that everything in it is true.

The ATC has described the play thus: ‘suppressed for 150 years, ATC’s latest work uncovers the words of a woman who dared to challenge colonial injustice.’

This suggests some ‘truths’ have been uncovered, whereas it’s fair to say that some of them, as portrayed in the play, are in fact fictional.

I’m not sure we can really say that Mary Anne Martin ‘challenge(d) colonial justice’ – she was critical of colonial policy and deplored the land wars, but after going through Our Maoris, I have trouble seeing her as a radical crusader for justice. Her mission was to convert Māori from heathenism to Christianity and for me this complicates her character – Christianity was just another form of colonialism.

Despite my qualms about historical accuracy, I rate this play highly. I was transported back the mid-19th century New Zealand by the writing and Laurel Devenie’s performance. It’s on at Downstage until 10 September. If you are interested in New Zealand history (however it is portrayed!) and Māori-Pākehā relations, you really should go.

Whaddarya?

I am about to set off on a journey in search of the New Zealand soul of 2011. As Rugby World Cup teams and supporters set foot on our soil, New Zealanders begin to ask ‘How will the country perform?’ I’m not thinking primarily of whether Graham Henry’s men will flop again (although the fingers are crossed that they won’t), but rather how will we as a people present ourselves to the world. And what will our self-image be at the end of the next two months’ big party?

I grew up thinking of us as a ‘lamb roast and potatoes’ people. A country of strong farming types, good at rugby and war, who sent its clever people, its artists and scientists – think Katherine Mansfield and Ernest Rutherford – to exile overseas. But much has changed. We are now a nation of cities, we win Hollywood Oscars, we talk about good wines and coffees, we sing waiata, we enjoy the styles that Asian and Pacific people have brought to our streets, markets and foods. How has all this transformed our identity; and have we become more than a country that used to be good at footie? I want to find out.

The Real New Zealand Festival will showcase New Zealand arts and culture

My primary guide in this pursuit of the Kiwi is the marvellous programme to be found in the Real New Zealand Festival. I am heading first out to the provinces using the festival website to lead me to events and displays along the way. There will be high art. I can’t wait to see Ralph Hotere and Bill Culbert’s ‘Pathway to the sea’ in Dunedin and the Len Lye exhibition in New Plymouth, not far from his marvellous wind wand that graces the waterfront. I think Te Matatini’s ‘Arohanui’ will be a highlight. There will also be events with roots deep in our culture – horse races, the Hastings Blossom Festival, farmers’ markets, ‘Frocks on bikes’ in Rotorua, the curling festival at Naseby and the Bluff Oyster Festival. I am looking for laughs, good tastes and plenty of fun.  How creative is this country and what makes the people tick?

My reactions and experiences will also be guided by two wonderful projects which I have been privileged to be part of. First, I have helped put together Te Ara, the online encyclopedia of New Zealand. This has given me an extraordinary sense of the richness of this marvellous country – its extraordinary natural landscapes, its regional cultures and its distinctive peoples. I will draw on particularly the sections we have done on the ‘Places’ of New Zealand; and the sections on the different peoples of this land – both the iwi and the non-Māori peoples, from Scots to Tongans, who have helped shape the culture of today’s New Zealand.

Second, I have recently helped put together 110 ‘Roadside Stories’, short four-minute audio files about fascinating stories and events along the major highways of New Zealand.  We compiled these to give our visitors some sense of the amazing people and natural features which can be found as you drive through the country.  Every so often I will dip into this store of tales to enlighten our quest.

I’ll also turn to the people in the streets to get their viewpoints. What does a fan of the Georgian rugby team make of this country, or a Namibian? And how are Kiwis themselves reacting to the visitors and the festival that the cup has inspired. Each blog post will include a couple of these voices from the street.

Then there is the rugby. I am no acute observer of the game, but I’ve followed it since childhood when I yearned to be Ron Jarden on the wing. So expect a few rugby asides. I’m also keen to put some of the forthcoming games in a wider context. Thinking of the Falklands War, I’m looking forward to seeing Argentina play England in Dunedin’s new covered stadium – perhaps this will give new meaning to the ‘barmy army’?  And with the Cold War in mind, I can’t wait to see the USA play Russia in New Plymouth.

Where this journey into the Kiwi soul will end up, I have no idea, but it will be fun. Join me along the way and find out.

Mayor Meng Foon at the East Coast launch

Before 130 enthusiastic locals, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Chris Finlayson last night launched the East Coast entry of Te Ara. This is the 21st and penultimate region in the Places theme to be launched. Every region has its own character, but the East Coast is without doubt the most bicultural area of the country.

As the entry shows, Māori constituted almost half (47.3%) of the population at the last census. It was also the place where Māori and James Cook first met; where a number of the founding waka, the Tākitimu, Horouta and Nukutaimemeha canoes, found landfall; and where Paikea landed on his whale. Monty Soutar agreed to write the entry because, as he explained last night, he was keen to ensure that the story of both peoples was adequately told. Monty had the ideal credentials for the job. He has whānau roots deep in the region, is a wonderful writer whose masterpiece is Nga Tama Toa on C Company of the 28 (Māori) Battalion, and has served as director of the Tairawahiti Museum and chief executive of the Ngāti Porou rūnanga. So, the story he tells evokes the Māori experience on the coast in all its richness. Among the highlights look at:

• a wonderful painting by Tony Lloyd of Hine Hakirirangi, sister of Pāoa the chief of the Horouta canoe.  She is said to have brought the kūmara to Aotearoa.
• a remarkable film of the posthumous presentation of the Victoria Cross to the parents of Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngārimu at Ruatōria in October 1943
• an interactive showing the marae in the Waiapu River valley
• a video for the hit song ‘Sensitive to a smile’, by reggae band Herbs, which was shot at Mangahānea marae near Ruatōria in 1987
• a film of Minister Finlayson signing the deed of settlement with Ngai Tāmanuhiri earlier this year.

There is also full acknowledgement of the contribution of Pākehā to the region such as:

• the ‘awe-inspiring sight’ of Douglas Cook’s Eastwoodhill arboretum
• Harry Barker, the longest serving mayor in New Zealand history
• Tom Heeney, who fought for the world’s heavyweight crown and is shown being welcomed by a huge crowd in Gisborne
• the novelist David Ballantyne represented by one of his East Coast novels, The Cunninghams
• and Murray Ball, one of the region’s most talented sons, who contributes a great cartoon.

The entry also includes a video of a waiata by the present mayor of Gisborne District, Meng Foon. Of Chinese origin, Mayor Meng learnt to speak Māori while working in his parents’ market garden alongside Ngāti Porou and Tūranganui-a-Kiwa labourers. To our delight the mayor sang the waiata last night at the launch. It is nice to realise that even in such a strongly bicultural place as the East Coast culture crosses all boundaries.

In April our latest theme, Social Connections, went live. After looking at the statistics for a couple of months, we can now tell you which of the 105 entries in the theme are the most popular. The results may surprise you, depress you, or simply intrigue you.

Skinhead and girlfriend – the most popular image from the most popular entry

Our most popular entry in this theme is Gangs. Now, there is no doubt that this is an excellent entry, which we spent much time over. For such a loaded subject we needed to draw on a range of skills and perspectives, so the entry was jointly written by noted criminologist Greg Newbold and expert on Māori society Rāwiri Taonui. When the entry arrived, it was checked and edited closely by Basil Keane, Te Ara’s Māori editor, and our in-house specialist on crime, Carl Walrond. Fierce arguments ensued. We tried to get the balance right between, as the blurb says, presenting gangs as ‘products of poor and troubled backgrounds looking for friendship and fun, or as criminal organisations associated with drug running, violence and crime’. Then we sent the entry off to some former gang members to get the facts right. So, it is a good entry, well worked over and brilliantly illustrated – look at the map of gangs, the interactive on gang insignia, and the great photo of Thea Muldoon and Black Power.

Yet I doubt if the entry’s quality is the only reason for its popularity. An indication of this is that the third most popular entry is Violent crime, also written by Greg. It deals with murders, assault and rape. Perhaps it is simply that people are drawn to sensationalism. As that entry says: ‘Murders, assaults and rapes dominate newspaper headlines, attract television news viewers, and ignite public debate about harsher sentences for offenders and better support for victims of crime.’ Or is it that people have come looking for answers to deep-seated social problems? Our fourth most popular entry is on Mental health services.

If some of our users are just pursuing sensationalism, others have quite different interests. A particularly strong strand are those who are interested in finding out about the history of women’s experience. Others are interested in the history of families over time and other social-history subjects. Among the top eight we find:

• Megan Cook’s magisterial survey of the Women’s movement
• Kerryn Pollock’s fascinating study of Pregnancy, birth and baby care
• Rosemary Du Plessis and Ian Pool’s brilliant overview, Families – a history
• Jan Jordan’s pioneering study of Sex work and the battle to legalise prostitution.

Another significant group of users are interested in things Māori, and especially the relationships between Pākehā and Māori. The most popular Māori entry is Basil Keane’s informed survey of traditional Māori religion, Ngā karakia a te Māori – traditional Māori religion. Also in the top 12 are Māori–Pākehā relations, Missions and missionaries, Ethnic inequalities and Ethnic and religious intolerance.

Finally, number 13 on the popularity stakes is the entry on Dental care. Do people enjoy re-living their memories of the ‘murderhouse‘, or is there some other reason for its popularity? I leave you to speculate as you enjoy our chart-toppers.