Maoriland Fairy Tales by HOWES, Edith

Most of the tales have some basis in history. It is an oral language so all histories have to be remembered and retold. To help with this memory retelling the carvings all have relative information and prompts, stories of Atua (sort of gods) and other people (pakeha) that have been encountered are all blended into the stories. One of the amazing things to listen to is a person's whakapapa (family line). My son's father can tell his whakapapa right back to first landing in the canoe Aotea. It takes hours with the stories of battles, moving and resettling and then the invasion of British soldiers and settlers. Those pale fairies in one of the recent stories would most probably have been Malaysian or Portugese fishermen/explorers. The Tikanga (way to behave/live) is quite strict and the stories support keeping people in line. This strictness is a kind of policing I think because it doesn't matter what time in history or what country, human nature doesn't change. There are greedy, silly, great and strong leaders