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The stories that Pākehā have told themselves about the origins and nature of Māori.

Since Europeans first set foot in New Zealand they have speculated about where Māori people came from, how they made their way to New Zealand and how they lived when they arrived here. Theories have abounded: some of them have hardened into accepted truth. The result has been an accumulation of Pākehā myths about Māori origins.

The process of this mythmaking is the subject of Sorrenson’s book – from Cook and the explorers, through Percy Smith, Edward Tregear and Elsdon Best, and on to the present. The author writes: ‘Should any reader remain unhappy that I have not solved the age-long problem of the whence of the Māori, my only reply is that such was not my intention. For this is a study of the quest itself, of the numerous “solutions” offered by others; an essay in an aspect of New Zealand’s intellectual history. It is not an attempt to find an original or even a Pacific homeland for the Māori. I leave that task to the many others who are happily engaged on it.’

Author

M. P. K. Sorrenson (Pukenga, Wairaka and Toroa of Mataatua) began as a junior lecturer in the University of Auckland history department in 1958 and completed a DPhil at Oxford and further research in East Africa, before returning to Auckland in 1964. He taught at the University for the next 31 years. His other publications include Ko te Whenua te Utu: Land is the Price: Essays on Māori History, Land and Politics (AUP 2014) and Nā Tō Hoa Aroha: From Your Dear Friend: The Correspondence Between Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck, three volumes (1986–1988). Sorrenson was president of CARE in the 1970s, sat on the council of the NZ Historic Places Trust for a decade and was a leading member of the Waitangi Tribunal for 25 years.

Reviews

‘The twists of the debate make for a fascinating narrative, which is told with clarity and precision . . .. For historians of race relations Professor Sorrenson’s book will serve to give a new meaning to familiar material; for intellectual historians it will be more central, an indispensable beginning.’
— Jock Phillips, New Zealand Journal of History

‘The disentangling of authentic tradition will be made easier and the conflicts more intelligible by Sorrenson’s clear and systematic analysis . . .. [The book] will exercise influence because it is presented with elegant precision and it is eminently readable. I will be popular with students because it is both brief and lucid. More importantly, despite its compression, it bears the stamp of authoritative scholarship.’
— Tipene O’Regan, Journal of the Polynesian Society