Maori Times, Maori Places

Today, the Maori must live in a world that is dominated by European institutions. The ability to do this successfully depends on their constant vigilance in sustaining their beliefs, their views of themselves, and their notions of how the world works. Their membership in Maramatanga permits them to feel selected while they cautiously traverse a landscape which has lost its familiar outlines. This book is a compilation of twenty-five years of fieldwork with a group of Maori. It is an examination of oral histories, notebooks of songs, diaries, accounts of pilgrimages, and life histories. Critical issues are addressed including, written and unwritten histories, colonialism, gender, and membership in Maramatanga. This book examines in great detail what scholars of New Zealand have grown to understand, there is no monolithic Maori voice.