24 Maori Prose Traditions – Keri Hulme: The Bone People
Dr. Mrinmoy Pramanick
About the Module
This module talks very briefly about indigenous literature of New Zealand and Maori tradition and Polynesian heritage. Maori prose tradition also has been introduced very briefly here. Renowned indigenous author of the literature of New Zealand Keri Hulme is introduced, a short bio-note of her also has been presented here. Keri Hulme has been historicized and situated in the tradition of Maori prose. Her celebrated novel Bone People has been briefly discussed and a short introduction to her writings also has been presented in this module. This module will help the students to understand the indigenous prose writing in very specific context and the students will be introduced with a different worldview.
Introduction
Literature of New Zealand gets its roots of cultural resources from its rich heritage of Maori tradition and heritage of Polynesian connection. Literature of New Zealand cannot be understood without having historical study of Maori and Polynesian cultural elements and genres. Maori tradition has its very strong style of story-telling. Maori people used to gather in a place call Marae where they use to share their myths, legends and different other stories of their ancestors. This is how the cultural communication and dialogues used to be happened from one generation to the other. In the writings of different Maori or indigenous authors of New Zealand, we can observe an artistic adaptation of this style of story-telling and Hulme is one among those authors.
Like any other communities of the Polynesian people Maoris also had started to occupy the land, which is now known as New Zealand almost one thousand year back. And they composed, performed and memorized their laments, love songs and poems, chants and prayers and other stories (Literature). Like many other civilisations Maori people also had their own oral Mythologies and records of their ancestors and heroes in different oral genres. And this is how they used to celebrate their past. In the very beginning with the European invasion in the land, the Europeans started to keep records of different literary genres of Maori tradition and they started to write those in Maori language (Literature).
The ex-colonies of Europe shares the same experiences. In case of India, we also can observe the same. The introduction of printing press and modern institutions in India by the British, the culture and heritage along with literature of India was record by the colonizers and interpreted simultaneously by them. Not only that, the European interpretation of Indian, culture, tradition and heritage was also penetrated into the Indian blood. Same thing happened with different indigenous or aboriginal culture of different parts of the world. The significant role was played by the European anthropologists who initially did the field works and started to keeping records of oral treasures of different communities.
Therefore, all the communities like this had to reclaim and reconstruct their own very identity. And this process has yet not been completed. The literature of such regions and communities share such experiences with their modern and contemporary literature with the world. We will try to situate Keri Hulme in such historic and political context and will try to understand her writings.
Maori Prose Tradition
The newspaper of the Maori language started to be printed since 1840s and it was continued till the beginning of 20th century. This newspaper offered a wider space for the people to write and debate. Very initial stage of Maori prose began to be formed with the introduction of print technology, printing press and newspaper (Introduction). Content and speech of Maori oral traditions initially were kept as an archive by the European invaders into the land. The very art of Maori prose writing was inherited from the Maori storytelling. In the beginning of twentieth century, Maori writers were very less focused on the Maori traditions and they were yet to discover their past. The stereotypes prevailed in the cultural and social knowledge also were reflected in the writings of early Maori prose writers. Later gradually, consciousness about recovering, reconstructing their past and identity has been came into being in their socio-cultural life. Introducing Māori literature, a thesis for the partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Arts, in 1996, Michelle Maria Keown writes,
All these stereotypes were started to be countered when different poets and authors introduced themselves in the literary zones of English. Different anthologies New Zealand literature began to include poems and short stories written by indigenous authors. In 1966 Jacqueline Sturm appeared as the first story writer from Maori community and her writings were started to be included in different anthologies. Hone Tuwhare appeared as first Maori poet and he was appreciated by the readers and critics. Witi Ihimaera wrote many short stories and his first novel, Tangi (1973) which placed Maori literature in a prominent and significant position in the map of literature of the New Zealand. Keri Hulme and her Bone People (1983) makes Maori literature finally the literature of wider significance to the readers across the world. This novel shows the very essence of ‘Maoriness’ in literature. This novel own the Booker Prize in 1985 (Keown, Michelle Maria;).
Like many other oral tradition, Maori oral tradition also has its own narrative prose which is like the Indian genre of Akhyan, poetry or songs, and the stories of ancestors and genealogy of the community. In India also we can find Puranas as the story of origin of the people, Vedas as poetry or songs and Narrative poem in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, narrative prose again in Puaranas. As many Indians find their myth, legend and Itihasa in their ancient texts Maori people also find their myths, legends and genealogical narrative in their ancient and old texts of the oral traditions. Their oral narratives of different genres also were used to be performed.
Keri Hulme: A Short Introduction
Keri Hulme was born on 9th March, 1947 in Christchurch of the South Island of New Zealand. She was born in a family of carpenter and a credit manager, she is eldest among six children of her parents. Her family has different lineage of descendants, like English, Scottish and Maori. Different communities of Maori people mixed in the family history of the author. Hulme, after her school life started working tobacco picking and thereafter she joined for a degree course in the University of Canterbury but did not continue the study and again came back to the profession of tobacco picking (Keri Hulme).
During school days she used to pass her holidays with her mother in Moeraki, which has sings of Maori past and Hulme liked the place more than any other places on earth. She abled to connected herself with her Maori ancestors here in Moeraki. A residual of Maori culture and tradition was existing there. This initial experience of connecting herself with the past of the ancestors was written in a short autobiographical note which was included in The Land and The People (1987) and Home places: Three Coasts of the South Island of New Zealand (1989) (Hulme, Keri). Hulme had keen interest in storytelling and communicating it with the others. She started writing her words in poems since her age of twelve and she started writing short stories also (Hulme, Keri). Gradually with her growing up she started writing her experiences in fragmentation and she prepared herself for becoming what she became today.
Keri Hulme, widely read Maori author won New Zealand Book Award in 1984 for her Bone People. She won Booker Prize in 1985 for the same book. She was writer in residence at the University of Otago and the University of Canterbury. She also won Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award in 1975, New Zealand Literary Fund grant in 1975, 1977, and 1979, Maori Trust Fund Prize (1978), East-West Centre Award (1979), Book of the Year Award (1984), and Mobil Pegasus Prize (1985) (Keri Hulme).
Her notable works include novels like Bone People (1984), Bait and On the Shadow Side, and collection of poems like, The Silences Between (1982), Lost Possessions (1985), and Strands (1992). She has immense contribution in the history of Maori short story. She has several collections of stories and some of her stories also have been adapted into films. Her story collections are, Kaihau: The Windeater (1986), Te Whenua, Te Iwi/The Land and The People (1987) includes Hulme’s an autobiographical note, “Okatiro and Moeraki” Homeplaces: Three Coasts of the South Island of New Zealand (1989), and Stonefish (2004) short stories and poems (Keri Hulme).
Pakeha (European) Literature
In order to have an adequate understanding on Maori literature and literary politics in the literature of New Zealand we must have an idea of Pakeha literature and its connection with Maori literature. Michael King defines ‘Pakeha’,
“…as an adjective, the word [Pakeha] now denotes non-Maori and usually Western or European phenomena; and … as a noun it refers to people of predominantly European descent. …In common use ‘Pakeha’ is simply a descriptive word applied to non-Polynesian people and things in New Zealand that derive originally from outside New Zealand – most often from Europe, and even more specifically, because of the nature of our history, from the United Kingdom” (Keown, Michelle Maria;).
This concept of Pakeha is very significant in the cultural and intellectual context of New Zealand. It is restructuring and conveying message of differences, differences between the insiders and the outsiders. It is also about the identity of the people who are not Polynesian descent. This term is also a matter of cultural resistance, that it imposes an identity to the outsiders and apparently more powerful people who occupied the land of the indigenous people once and occupied them in every senses. Because of this occupying nature of colonization and culturally hierarchical forces occupied community de-learn their imposed cultural knowledge and then they have to restructure their surroundings and identity to offer themselves their own cultural heritage to re-learn it. Through this process indigenous people of New Zealand not only reconstruct their own identity but they also reconstruct their other.
William Satchell, Jane Mander, Allen Curnow are distinguished authors of the literature of the New Zealand who are from European descent. And the authors of European descents are the early writers of different literary genres in New Zealand. But the gradual consciousness, education and a sense of identity crisis brought a new groups of writer and with this literature becomes not only polyphonic but it relates itself with the history of the greater community and far deeper past of the land and people.
The Bone People
The manuscript of the novel Bone People was rejected by many publishing houses and finally Hodder & Stoughton accepted it for publishing as a book. The word bone is the meaning of the Maori word iwi which is used for the tribal people of New Zealand. The bone signifies the ancestors of the community or the early or oldest people of the land. With this bone- people Hulme sends a message that she is going to talk about the people who are so ancient and oldest to the land. The very title of the novel establishes the claim of the indigenous people to the land (The Bone People).
Hulme is an aromantic author but she talks about love and other human emotions here as the very nature of the community itself. This novel is divided into two parts. The first part talks about society building, community building and the dialogues happening among the people of the community and the second part talks about the journey of the people characterized in the first part of the novel (The Bone People).
Kerewin Holmes, Joe Gillayley and Simon P. Gillayley are the major characters of the novel. Critics agree with the comment made by the author that the character Kerewin Holmes is very close to the author, it is like the author herself. Author says that Kerewin ‘has always been a bit of an off-shoot of me—a sort of wish-fulfilment character for what she owned, a shallow alter ego’, but ‘she escaped out of my control and developed a life of her own’(Hulme, Keri). Holmes initially was afraid of her past and she was running away from it but once she met other two characters she found that a fight is required to face the reality of the life. Joe is an alcoholic but like very common man, he adopted Simon as his son. Simon cannot speak. He got new meaning of life when he was adopted by Joe. Simon can express his surroundings when he is with Joe. Joe gives a sense of completeness to Simon. Simon does not like to cut his hair, he does not like to hear French language etc. Sometimes, it seems that Simon appears as a symbol of the tribal community itself and his reaction to the surroundings of his not liking is his reaction against the power of the invader. But Simon is a Pakeha child who is brought up by a full blood Maori father Joe. But interestingly this two race and culture meets together and becomes so friendly that the Simon cannot stand completely as a character of European descent. This is how cross-racial and cross cultural issues have been addressed in this novel.
Love, violence, isolation, identity, nationalism etc. are dominating themes in this novel. Isolation is depicted here with the character of Simon. Author commented, “What I was doing in The Bone People was getting my head straight on questions like: What happens to outcasts? Is there any point to life? What would happen if Maori spiritual presence was resurrected in this land of ours?” (Slavin, Molly Marie ;). This is how a strong voice from the community conveyed through the novel and it is one of the very strong approaches to reestablish the people with the land. Her novel and other writings are not historical in the senses academic discipline understand the history but it is objected to create myths, legends of the Maori oral tradition in the language of Europe. Critics have appreciated Hulme’s master-art of bringing the reality and myth together (Keri Hulme Writing Styles in The Bone People). The narrator of the novel Bone people is of both the voices of the first person and third person. But this voice changes is not so prominent, therefore the readers must be attentive to get the changing of voices. And this is her art in this novel that she makes thoughts of the character to meet the reality (Keri Hulme Writing Styles in The Bone People).
The themes and the characters of the novel shows a revival of the indigenous myths and different other narratives to set a counter narrative of the colonization and the narrative of the colonized. Jo Walton comments that the story of this novel does not exclude the people of European origin. This novel talks about the Maori people and tradition, it talks about the people of European descent, it gets into the culture of European people in New Zealand and gradually it brings the readers out of it what is remarkable and main objective of the novel that it revives the Maori tradition and reconstruct it, though does not refuse the statement of reality of being colonized (Walton, Jo;).
This novel does not show any happy ending. This novels was not intended to talk romantic about the Maori culture. It does not want to set any idealistic picture of the community or revenge of the community against the colonisers but very carefully and skillfully she addressed the issue of the contemporary reality of New Zealand that the juxtaposition and intercommunication between the cultures and communities can make a sustainable culture of New Zealand. Though it never compromises to show inhuman destructive nature of the colonization where the human culture was threaten. At the end, “The novel demonstrates that both a sense of individual worth and a selfless commitment to others are essential for a meaningful life. The balance is difficult to achieve, and conditions over which one has no control can make its attainment more difficult” (The Bone People Themes).
Conclusion
Keri Hulme’s novel Bone People is a worth reading text at least for those cultures what were once colonized, it is worth reading for those people at least who have faced racial discrimination and lost their culture, language and people. It is one of the seminal text in Maori literature and it helps to understand the context of the relations between the indigenous people and the invaders. The novel addressed the complexities of the reality and it conveyed the message of staying together of two different cultures but not losing distinguished characteristics of the communities. The themes which are constructed here in the narrative talks about the long saga of the land, from very ancient to the contemporary.
Summary
In this module we have talked about the Maori prose tradition and Pakeha literature and its cultural significance. We have briefly introduced Kari Hulme with her brief bio-note and her contribution in Maori literature as well as the literature of New Zealand. We have discussed different aspects of Maori oral traditions with the reference of some Indian contexts too. Especially we have discussed on the milestone of novel written by Keri Hulme Bone People.
With the sense of the methodology of comparative literature we have tried to understand how the emergence of such literatures is not isolated or alienated incident in the world though all of them have their own socio-politico and cultural contexts. This comparative understand on the genealogy of indigenous literature of different parts of the world is necessary to accommodate those literary texts in our literary departments where literature in English offers New literature and new world view. In this module we have tried to bring all these relevant issues. For further reading on the topic students are requested to consult the reference and further reading list for having better understanding on the topic.
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References:
- Hulme, Keri. April 2016. <http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writer/hulme-keri>. “Introduction.” McRae, Jane. Maori Oral Tradition: He Korero no te Ao Tawhito. n.d. ebook. 2 December 2017. <https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/press/all- books/pdfs/2017/McRae_Maori-Oral-Tradition_blad.pdf>.
- Keown, Michelle Maria;. Māori literature. 29 May 2013.<https://backyardbooks.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/maori-literature/>.
- Keri Hulme. n.d. Web. 2 December 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keri_Hulme>.
- Keri Hulme Writing Styles in The Bone People. n.d. <http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide- bone-people/styles.html#gsc.tab=0>.
- Literature. n.d. 2 December 2017. <https://www.newzealand.com/in/literature/>.
- Slavin, Molly Marie ;. Hulme, Keri: Biography. n.d.<https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/10/hulme-keri/ >.
- The Bone People. n.d. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bone_People>.
- The Bone People Themes. n.d. <https://www.enotes.com/topics/bone-people/themes>.
- Walton, Jo;. Maori Fantasy: Keri Hulme’s The Bone People. 24 March 2009.<https://www.tor.com/2009/03/24/maori-fantasy-keri-hulmes-the-bone-people/>.