The Maori cover art

The Maori

The History and Legacy of New Zealand’s Indigenous People

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The Maori

By: Charles River Editors
Narrated by: Dan Gallagher
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About this listen

In 1769, Captain James Cook’s historic expedition in the region would lead to an English claim on Australia, but before he reached Australia, he sailed near New Zealand and spent weeks mapping part of New Zealand’s coast. Thus, he was also one of the first to observe and take note of the indigenous peoples of the two islands. His instructions from the Admiralty were to endeavor at all costs to cultivate friendly relations with tribes and peoples he might encounter, and to regard any native people as the natural and legal possessors of any land they were found to occupy. Cook, of course, was not engaged on an expedition of colonization, so when he encountered for the first time a war party of Maori, he certainly had no intention of challenging their overlordship of Aotearoa, although he certainly was interested in discovering more about them.

Approaching from the east, having rounded Cape Horn and calling in at Tahiti, the HMS Endeavour arrived off the coast of New Zealand, and two days later it dropped anchor in what would later be known as Poverty Bay. No sign of life or habitation was seen until on the morning of the 9 October when smoke was observed to be rising inland. Cook and a group of sailors set off for shore in two boats and leaving four men behind to mind the boats, the remainder set off inland over a line of low hills. The sentries, however, were surprised by the arrival of a group of four Maori, who adopted an aggressive posture, and when one lifted a lance to hurl, he was immediately shot down.

The impression that all of this left on Cook and the scientific members of the expedition was mixed. By then there had already been several encounters with Polynesian people scattered about the South Pacific, and although occasionally warlike, there were none quite so aggressive as the Maori. In fairness, it must be added that the Maori understanding of Cook’s appearance, and what it represented was by necessity partial, and in approaching it they simply fell back on default behavior, applicable to any stranger approaching their shores.

Taking into account similarities of appearance, customs, and languages spread across a vast region of scattered islands, it was obvious that the Polynesian race emerged from a single origin, and that origin Cook speculated was somewhere in the Malay Peninsula or the “East Indies”. In this regard, he was not too far from the truth. The origins of the Polynesian race have been fiercely debated since then, and it was only relatively recently, through genetic and linguistic research, that it can now be stated with certainty that the Polynesian race originated on the Chinese mainland and the islands of Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Oceania was, indeed, the last major region of the Earth to be penetrated and settled by people, and Polynesia was the last region of Oceania to be inhabited.

©2018 Charles River Editors (P)2018 Charles River Editors
Australia, New Zealand & Oceania Europe Great Britain Oceania England Indigenous Culture
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brief history overview of new zealands colonisation, the entire history in about 1 and a half hours

not quite as in depth as i thought

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I cannot understand why the producers decided on this reader. To my mind the reading quality is imperative to the success of an audiobook. This guy hasn’t even bothered to get the pronunciation even nearly right. Being NZ born ,I found it offensive.

Awful narration

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We are Māori (Mah or ree. Rolling the r)
not mey yoree. Interestingly a more difficult word Pohutukawa was pronounced perfectly. But Kumara is - to pardon the pun - butchered.
Tap oo instead of tup oo, marna instead of Munna. It would not have been so bad but considering the title is about Māori it would not have taken much effort to listen to an YouTube rendering of the name given that is reiterated constantly throughout the book.

Interesting but pronunciation awful

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Enjoyed all history whys and wherefores - I believe a New Zealander narrator would suit this book much better regarding pronunciation of persons and places

Accent

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large chunks repeated in other books by same author. unable to listen to it past 4th chapter as the Te Reo pronunciation was painful. please at least learn how to pronounce the word Maori.... this is the first negative feed back I have given after reading more than 20 books. very disappointing.

pronunciation painful very disappointing

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The history is basic, although easy to follow, but the pronunciation of Maori words was terrible & disappointing. This should have been addressed before production.

Terrible interpretation of pronunciation

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Every time the reader pronounced Maori it did my head in. I’m not a fan which is disappointing because I love hearing account about my culture, not this time

Painful

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I enjoyed the history but unfortunately the pronunciation of Maori, Maori and New Zealand words were quite poor

A good book

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very poor pronunciation of maori words. a little effort in this area would have made a huge difference. that said the content seems well balanced and a good introduction to a topic

Good introduction to Maori history

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have had to stop listening as the narrators lack of respect to learn pronunciation of te reo is embarrassing for audible to say the least.

pronunciation of "maori" is disappointing

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