Maori Maps

Abstract

This paper examines the making of maps by Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Four maps made at the point of contact with Europeans are examined cartographically for their symbolism, selection of elements, and use of text, and historically for the circumstances in which each was made. The maps show an instinctive facility with mapmaking and reveal elements that differ from European maps being made at the same time. They appear also to be sketches made to accompany more detailed oral maps. The oral sayings are then examined for evidence of a tradition of mapmaking that had no, or only transitory, material form. The discussion demonstrates that Maori had an acute geographical and navigational facility and were able to relate their own sense of being, expressed in cosmology, genealogy, history, and lived experience, in the oral map that is laid on the landscape. They were able also to readily communicate the map to an incoming culture that possessed a different language, history, and perception, and had different needs. While there are apparently no 'Maori maps' in the material historical record that predate European arrival, it is felt that the maps made at the point of contact reflect a long tradition of mapmaking.