Lighting the way: The establishment of the first printed works in Te Reo Māori

Abstract


 
 
 This paper explores the environment in which the first printed works were created in Aotearoa/ New Zealand. During the industrial revolution in Britain, the Empire was engaged in a global race of expansion against European counterparts. On their arrival in Aotearoa/New Zealand in the early part of the 1800s, some missionaries sought to learn the language and understand common phrases, and then to prepare educational texts and to print scripture. In order to create notices, dictionary, grammar, religious pamphlets and books it was necessary to create a new written language in Te Reo Māori. In all such cases, European contact with indigenous populations had long lasting effects, and in a few cases those effects provided the foundation for cultural survival. The events of the early formative period of the interactions between Māori and the missionaries and symbols of such events is also discussed through a series of visual narratives made with screenprints on paper by the authors.