puff 612 Whatever happened to the Pa?
Whatever happened to the Pa?
Paper delivered to the Social Anthropology Conference
Palmerston North
1992
Pa n stockade, fortified place
Na, ka puta mai te pa ki waho (N.S1)
He umauma tangata
He umauma rakau.
Ko te kai a te rangatira, he korero.
PART ONE
Last year, to this conference, I presented a paper entitled Revising the Warrior (Illusions 19, 1991). That paper looked at ways in which the concept of the Maori warrior was being reviewed and reconsidered in plays and literature. The paper also suggested that reformulation or repredication was occurring in Maori society (c.f. Cleave 1990, Ohnuki Tierney 1989).
In an earlier seminar paper (1989) to the Social Anthropology Department at Auckland on Maori culture and the culture of the school I suggested that since World War II there were three distinct periods partly characterized by the foci of Maori Society. I put it to the group that prior to the early 1960s the pa had been a commonly acknowledged focus of Maori society. Most pa were rural, which contrasted with the shift to the towns that had occurred since 1945 and of backwardness. The furore over 'Washday at the Pa' gave me its original publication date of 1964 as a benchmark to show a moment before which the concept pa was in general use and after which the term marae began to be increasingly used. It seemed to me then that marae had begun to lose its gloss in the mid eighties and a displacement was occurring which gave the school, Kura and its culture a major focal role in Maori society.
Recently I have begun to revise this very basic and crude model because of what I take to be a set of misconceptions to do with the pa. While I am not sure that I understand the concept completely I am convinced that the idea of the pa as a stockade or fortified place is insufficient. This is well demonstrated in such phrases as pa punanga, a pa for non combatants, a refuge. Nonetheless the idea of the pa as a fortified place holds in Best as it does in Williams Maori dictionary.
The thesis advanced below is that the pa Maori was, and, I will argue later, in its current manifestations is a series of speaking sites in one respect, a set of kai or food signs or symbols in another respect. In order to reach this way of considering the pa I was initially perplexed by the use of platforms and stages by the early Maori. The stages were too high for the reason usually given for them, that the height protected food from the native rat, to make sense. And in many cases the fighting stages did not seem to be much use in defence. The enormous feast stages seemed to be outside the conventional anthropology of the Maori. Also the obvious display aspects of the stages had never, to my knowledge been treated effectively by commentators.
The sheer range of kinds of stages also bothered me. Why were there so many different terms for stages? Also why did the themes of food and speech consistently occur and intertwine? Another 'problem' was the notion of a stage which seemed to me inadequate. In one sense each stage was a kaupapa i.e. a raised platform for storing food, an altar or sacred platform or a raft (c.f. Best 1974:61). Personally I inclined to the latter meaning for various reasons; each stage was like a distinct vessel and had many of the attributes of a wake sometimes with shared canoe carving patterns (although Best, 1974:65 seems to cast doubt on the use of the pu kiore pattern on both superior canoes and the whata pu kiore used for the placement of dead bodies intended to be eaten).
It also seems clear from Best that each stage (or speaking site or kai sign/symbol) had its own kawa or protocols. The stages give a sense of the discrete and of the discreet, of privacy, or a kind of ownership. Each stage is, as it were in camera. This line of thinking contrasts markedly with most of the literature which emphasizes the collective nature of Maori society and contrasts particularly with the thesis developed in Anne Salmond's 'Hui' where the Maori meeting is usually perceived to be open and public (Salmond 1975).
From this point of view a pa is a cluster or configuration of Kai signs. It may be worth considering the proverb or whakatauku 'Ko te kai a te rangatira, he Korero'. The kind of kai and the way it is displayed is a kind of talk, a symbolic message.
At this point it may be worthwhile taking an in depth look at a 'model' pa and the kinds of platforms therein.
The stages and platform are generically known as whata. There were striking to the eye. Darwin in the Bay of Islands in 1835, says, 'The village are chiefly conspicuous by the platforms, which are raised on four posts 10 ‑ 12 feet above the ground and on which the produce of the fields is kept secure from all accidents. (c.f.Best 1916:59). Yate, also in 1935 mentions the same thing saying that the whata are the things that most strike the attention in approaching a native village. Yate goes on to add two other reasons for the height of the platforms; the first which is repeated by other commentators and treated fairly uncritically by Best is that of rats, while the next reason is that placing food on these that 'ensures to the owner the whole of his property, as no other person can ascend to take it from him without being detected'. (cited in Best 1916:25).
Darwin and Yate are talking about Kainga rather than pa although the distinction is one of loosely (Kainga) organized to highly (pa) organized Kai signs. In both accounts and in many others the sense of display is strong. This brings us to the question as to why the platforms were so high. The danger of the native rat seems to me to be a dubious argument. In the first place a height of one metre above ground ought to have been sufficient to keep the rats out. But many whata and storehouses were as high as twenty feet while hakari stages were from 80 to 100 feet at which point the display factor becomes abundantly clear while the rat factor would appear to diminish. Furthermore Maori did have a rat‑prevention device in the form of cones placed below whata and situated fairly low to the ground which prevented purchase or access by rats.
Kiore, the term for the native rat may have been the explanation most readily given by informants. If so, it may have been used as a general term for predators rather than the rat itself which seems to have been relatively harmless and is often compared favourably to the European rat. Where Kai and Kiore are used together there are some puzzles. For example does the phrase 'Tuhoe Kai Kiore' refer to the lack of food in the forest forcing the Tuhoe to eat rats or does it refer to their prowess in dealing with predators?
One fairly obvious reason for the height of the stages was that they functioned in terms of communication at a distance. The kai signs could be seen out of conversational or even shouting range. Again this gives a twist to the 'ko te kai a te rangatira, he Korero', saying. The hakari stages were also meant to be seen from a distance. And so it seems to me were the high fighting stages at Waitangi in the Chatham Islands and elsewhere (c.f. Best 1927:105) which went as high as five stories or one kumi or 50 ‑ 60 feet. The height of pa gates or entrances is also interesting in this regard. It seems to me that the whole matter of communication at a distance has not been dealt with adequately. We know very little about the pahu or gong or the trumpet, pu moana or pu kaea and their uses.
Kai signs or symbols displayed on high have obvious functions in terms of traditional Maori warfare. In some sieges the inhabitants of the pa were forced to eat the children of the pa. Best (1927:155) describes the sedge of Te Whetu‑matarau on the East Coast which lasted for nine months and say that people swapped children 'so as not to be compelled to kill and eat their own offspring! Conversely, the heads of enemies were displayed on fighting stages possibly in the ultimate of Kai signs, Kaitangata.
A good place to begin a discussion of the pa Maori would be the entrance to the pa. This is usually a kind of maze. In fact the idea of an access or entrance being maze‑like goes with the idea of a distinct protocol for each speaking site, the entrance to a pa having its own kawa in terms of karanga. In a sense the protocol is the maze. Platforms and their height are part of the maze/protocol and work as signs within the pa Maori. There are also the visual signals in the carving of the gateways and palisades, the masks of the pa if you like. These augment the maze.
The maze‑like qualities of the pa Maori were used as educational models. There are several reports of children building miniature pa (c.f. Best, 1927:100). The pa Maori is in fact a way or a mode of thought characterized by maze/protocols and kai signs.
Other ways into the pa were, obviously, through the palisades or over the fighting stages. The latter are interesting in terms of their complexity and the protocols association with them, especially the whakaara or sentinel chants.
PART TWO
Elsewhere (1979, 89) I have suggested that an upsurge in military and social organization involving larger units occurred in Maori society circa 1750. It may also be the case that the building of pa developed at this time. It would seem to follow also that many of the concepts involved in pa construction were clarified and developed around this time. If we say that conceptual redefinition and reformulation has characterized the period 1960 ‑ 1990 then there may be comparisons between the two periods. And yet it is in the last thirty years that the term pa has virtually disappeared from the Maori lexicon.
While the term pa may have almost vanished many of the terms used in pa construction and design have been used again in Maori mathematics (Barton and Cleave 1990, Taiaroa Knight Maloney and Cleave 1992). The demand for this has been for 'new' effective stratagems and conceptual organization in education. This fits with a 'nationalist' or 'ethnic revivalist strategy pertaining to the Maori language and spear‑headed by Te Taura Whiri o te Reo, the Maori Language Commission.
However there may be senses in which the idea of a ‘kai sign’ still pertain in what have become ethnic politics. I have argued since 1977 that the Land Wars were a manifestation of a change in mind sets, from tribal to statist, from chief to prophet, from mana‑a‑iwi to mane motuhake, from small group or team stratagems to global or early‑state politics and propaganda. This involves more use of metaphor especially those that stand for moral postures or positions of the wider group and less use of such tangible manifestations of the sub tribe as the pa. It was, in effect, pejorative to talk about Treaty issues from a strategic or rhetorical point of view in the years immediately preceding 1990. We seem to have something of a 'magic word' situation where 'Waitangi' for example is imbued with a sense of the moral high ground from circa 1975 until 1990 as is 'marae' from the mid 1960s until the mid 80s. These 'magic words' or 'foci' are themselves part of propaganda strategies. They are the symbols of the reformulations that a minority ethnic group must constantly make. They mark the location of speaking sites and are themselves kai signs.
Catalogue
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the American King,
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nothing seems to matter much
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where nothing seems to matter much
say what you like or what you don't
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I was a valley boy
we talked on the Red Bus
about anything that came to us
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there was a ring around the moon
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From high on a wish list
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the traffic stops
the rain begins to fall
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are lost in LA
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puffshop
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Idol
It was just a wish
From high on a wish list
but it had to be you
cos you are so fine
And the idol smiles
there is a door in the wall
the traffic stops
the rain begins to fall
Latrice and Labelle
are lost in LA
But they find a sign
meant for you and me
And the idol smiles
look out the window in the wall
The traffic stops
the rain begins to fall
Way on down the hall
Uncle Phil is asleep
You whisper to me
about Dragon Ball Zee
And the Idol smiles
it is written on the wall
the traffic stops
the rain begins to fall
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