Home > Maori songs > Explore Moteatea > Ko Nga Moteatea
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In the 1840s, Maori scholars all over NZ wrote down a wide
variety of their oral literature for Governor Grey, to help him
understand their view of life. Reading some of these poetic
chants and stories will help you as well. Mo-te-ātea
(for-the-altar) connect us to the spiritual world, while
Haki-rara (throw away & scatter) are for particular
occasions. The old poets who created these works were rebels who cheerfully ignored the language rules we normally use. They altered phrases, added unusual words, created wild metaphors and blythly omitted nouns, prepositions, and even verbs. Like Maori carvings, the distinctive patterns and pictures of these works of art are mysterious but magical. |
Find out how your favorite old words were used in the 1850s by searching for them here in Ko Nga Moteatea.
 types of moteatea on the NZETC website with my alphabetical index. |
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 of the book at Archives.org. It's like using Kindle. You can search in it too! |
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 this book in one simple text file. |
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 You can buy the book for your library from the BD in England. NZ $45 with free postage. |
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1854, Grey published this collection of mythical and
historical stories. And in 1855 he published an English translation of it. |
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Ko Nga Mahinga a Nga Tupuna Maori mea kohikohi mai na Sir George Grey K.C.B. 1854 |
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of Mahinga at Archives.org. You can search in it too! |
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 Grey's 1855 translation of Nga Mahinga. Scroll down to the clickable Contents page. You can line up the Engl & Maori versions side- by-side in two windows or on two tablets. |
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Nga Mahinga in one simple text file. |
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You can buy Nga Mahinga for your library from the BD in England. NZ $38 with free postage. |
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