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  • The Maori

  • The History and Legacy of New Zealand’s Indigenous People
  • By: Charles River Editors
  • Narrated by: Dan Gallagher
  • Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
  • 2.9 out of 5 stars (25 ratings)

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The Maori

By: Charles River Editors
Narrated by: Dan Gallagher
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Publisher's Summary

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
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about The Maori

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

NO RESPECT

It would be fantastic if you actually took the time and had enough respect for the position your in of imparting information about another culture.. to actually learn how to pronounce Maori properly. truly shocking!! and not just the narrator.. these things aren't recorded in isolation.. did no one in the production team know?? if not then who there heck are you to tell the story?? having said that.. interesting information but as a kiwi.. majorally offended at the lack of sensitivity shown in not even pronouncing the language correctly! Shameful!! completely discredits you and process you have no idea about what your reading..

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52 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Terrible interpretation of pronunciation

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

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28 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

pronunciation painful very disappointing

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.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Awful narration

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.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Painful

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

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

contains false disproven Information

first off a quick google search will tell you that the claims the author makes of moriori being a separate race that was driven off the mainland have been unequivocally disproven, and is a theory used by white nationalists to attempt to revoke maori status as first nations people. he also uses Tumatauwenga our god of war as evidence that we were a war hungry people but discounts our oral traditions that state otherwise, but tumatauwenga is just another part of our oral tradition so it would seem that some cherry picking has gone on here. claims of spanish and Portuguese are written about as if they are legitimate when in reality most expecrts would dismiss the idea. not a good book to read for an accurate depiction of maori history and is very much a romanticized white man's version of events.

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5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Miss-leading title and awful pronunciation

I usually enjoy the audiobooks I have listened from Audible. I was hoping for a book on Māori culture and instead got an outdated book on British colonisation of New Zealand. This was published in 2018 so there is no excuse. The pronunciation of Te Reo Māori is awful and embarrassment. Not a good luck for the usual high quality of Audible.

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2 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

You pronounce everything wrong

Please learn how to pronounce the word Maori. It is a book about Maori after all. It sounds like a text to voice computer is reading.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting but pronunciation awful

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.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good introduction to Maori history

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

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.