The Journal of the Polynesian Society VOLUME 118 No.2 JUNE 2009 THE POLYNESIAN SOCIETY THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND
THE JOURNAL OF THE POLYNESIAN SOCIETY Volume 118 JUNE 2009 Number 2 Editor JUDITH HUNTSMAN Review Editor MARK BUSSE Editorial Assistants JUDITH MACDONALD DOROTHY BROWN Published quarterly by the Polynesian Society (Inc.), Auckland, New Zealand
Published in New Zealand by the Polynesian Society (Inc.) Copyright 2009 by the Polynesian Society (Inc.) Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to: ISSN 0032-4000 Hon. Secretary The Polynesian Society c/- Mäori Studies The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019, Auckland Indexed in CURRENT CONTENTS, Behavioural, Social and Managerial Sciences, in INDEX TO NEW ZEALAND PERIODICALS, and in ANTHROPOLOGICAL INDEX. AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Volume 118 JUNE 2009 Number 2 CONTENTS Notes and News... 109 Articles SUSAN HEALY Tuku Whenua as Customary Land Allocation: Contemporary Fabrication or Historical Fact?... 111 STEPHEN M. YOUNGER Violence and Warfare in the Pre-contact Caroline Islands... 135 Shorter Communications SARINA PEARSON Video Night in Nuku alofa: Disjuncture and Difference on Tongan Screens... 165 ERIN WILLIAMS Mäori Fire Use and Landscape Changes in Southern New Zealand... 175 Review Horne, Gerald: The White Pacific: U.S. Imperialism and Black Slavery in the South Seas, After the Civil War. LYNNE McDONALD... 191 Publications Received... 193 Publications of the Polynesian Society... 195
NOTES AND NEWS Contributors to This Issue Susan Healy completed her doctorate in Mäori Studies at The University of Auckland in 2006 with a thesis entitled The Nature of the Relationship of the Crown in New Zealand with Iwi Mäori, which described and analysed the ways in which New Zealand as a modern state related to Mäori as a tribally-based people. As part of her doctoral research and subsequently she has researched written records concerning tuku whenua, a Mäori customary practice of land allocation. Her MA research was an enquiry into the theological colleges in New Zealand and their recognition of Mäori people and the Mäori world. She has an ongoing interest in the way New Zealand s national organisations relate to Mäori as an indigenous people. Susan is presently Publications Coordinator for Ngä Pae o te Maramatanga/National Institute of Research Excellence for Mäori Development and Advancement. Sarina Pearson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Film, Television and Media Studies at the University of Auckland. She received a MA Visual Anthropology from the University of Southern California and a PhD from The University of Auckland. Her academic publications include Pacific Camp: Satire, Silliness & Seriousness in Media, Culture & Society (2005), Darkness and Light: Dusky Maidens and Velvet Dreams in Camera Obscura (2005) and Television Dinners: Menus for a Multicultural New Zealand in Continuum (2007). She is also a producer with credits that include the television sketch comedy series A Thousand Apologies (2008) and short films, among them Coffee & Allah (2007) and Clean Linen (2006), films that have been officially selected for competition at international festivals including Venice and Melbourne respectively. Her current research focuses on mid-20th century Hollywood representations of the Pacific and the influence these representations have had upon contemporary urban Pacific performance. Erin Williams holds a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology from the University of Otago, and is currently working as an archaeologist and heritage advisor for Guy Williams and Associates in Dunedin. Stephen M. Younger is a Special Advisor to the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education and an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawai i Mänoa. His research focuses on the nature of human violence, particularly in small societies, using the tools of computer simulation and cross-cultural comparison. He received a PhD in physics from the University of Maryland and has written on topics in theoretical physics and on public policy. Elsdon Best Memorial Medal to be awarded to Professor Judith Binney at July AGM At the end of 2008 the Council of the Polynesian Society unanimously agreed to invite Professor Binney to accept the Elsdon Best Memorial Medal at the 2009 Annual General Meeting and to present a paper in response to the award. She accepted with alacrity and grace. The AGM will be convened at 5.30pm on the 22nd of July and the Medal presentation and Professor Binney s lecture, Stories without End, will 109
110 Notes & News follow at 6.30pm. The venue is the Department of Mäori Studies at the University of Auckland and Polynesian Society members are warmly invited to attend. The event is open to the public. Polynesian Society Memoir 54 now available. Ancestral Voices from Mangaia: A History of the Ancient Gods and Chiefs by Michael P.J. Reilly is now in print as Memoir 54 of The Polynesian Society. Michael is a Council Member of the Society and Professor of Mäori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies at the University of Otago. His earlier book, War and Succession in Mangaia from Mamae s Texts, was published by the Society in 2003 as Memoir 52. Michael characterises this new publication as follows. An effective understanding of the history of Mangaia requires a firm foundation in the language of its people. Based upon this insight, Ancestral Voices transcribes and interprets a series of indigenous historical texts, including proverbs, songs and narratives, as told by generations of Mangaian scholars, notably the tribal historian, Mamae, and by outsider scholars, particularly, the missionary, William Wyatt Gill, and the anthropologist, Te Rangi Hiroa (Peter Buck). Ancestral Voices discusses the stories told about the Island s ancient gods and ruling chiefs from its creation origins up to the early mission period in the 19th century. The stories of the gods describe encounters with the domain of tuärangi spirit beings, among whom are included the Island s principal gods, visitors from other Pacific Islands and European explorers such as James Cook. The Island s ruling chiefs controlled access to the economic and spiritual resources of Mangaia. Their stories relate the struggles for dominance over the lands and peoples, and the ritual sacrifices that were performed to ensure recognition of that chiefly rule by the gods. Ancestral Voices is based upon several key ideas. First, the value attached to recording indigenous historical voices by the New Zealand academic practice of Mäori Studies. Second, the recognition by the late Greg Dening and other Pacific historians of the importance of telling island history in terms of a people s own metaphors and cultural worldview. Lastly, the metaphor of conversation that encourages a partnership to develop between indigenous and non-indigenous scholars. Ancestral Voices is one outsider s contribution to a continuing and still incomplete conversation about Mangaia s ancient history.