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The Bone People by Keri Hulme traces the lives of Kerewin, Joe, and Simon, who live in a remote part of New Zealand. Hulme, part Maori herself, uses Maori language in the book and makes many references to Maori culture and myths. New Zealand was first colonized by the Maoris and later by the Pakehas, or Europeans. The Maoris have their own set of myths and traditions which address the questions about how and where life began. Anthropologists believe that the Maoris came from islands in or around Polynesia. They believe that the Maori people may have sailed to Aotearoa, meaning New Zealand in Maori dialect, from the Pacific around 700 A.D.
Maori Origin Myths
In The Bone People, Tiaki, a wise Maori sage, shows Joe, who is a Maori, a canoe from their ancestors' voyage to Aotearoa. Tiaki says: "The canoe. . .it has power, because of where it came from, and who built it, but it is just a canoe. One of the great voyaging ships of our people" (Hulme 364). Anthropologists have different ideas as to which island they believe to be the exact "launching place" of the Maoris. The myth that began this tradition of the sacred canoes stems from the belief that Hawaiki was the legendary launching place of the Maori people (Ihimaera 8). One collectively held belief is that "they had a common origin; and archaeologists have now established that they are descended from a horticultural, sea-going people who several thousand years ago lived in certain parts of what is now Melanesia, mostly on small islands of the northern coast of New Guinea and down as far as New Calcedonia" (Orbell 4). They are believed to have migrated several times to different islands before settling in New Zealand. The traditional canoes believed to be from Hawaiki are called: Tainui, Te Arawa, Maataatua, Kurahaupo, Tokomaru, Aotea, Takitimu, Horouta, and Nga Tokimatawhaorua (Ihimaera 9). Today Maori tribes are organized around which canoe a person's ancestors are believed to have sailed on to Aotearoa. According to Maori myth, three voyages were to have taken place, but the third voyage was the one in which New Zealand was cultivated. The creation myth of the Maoris is most throughly demonstrated in the novel through Joe becoming the protector of one of the sacred canoes. The Maoris are a polytheistic society and Joe must protect a canoe; through this protection, he guards the secrets of a Maori god.
The Source of Maori Life
According to Maori myth, not only did the Maori people come from Hawaiki, but human life was created on Hawaiki. These two myths were created by the Maoris to explain the origin of man. The first myth tells the story of how the first "human being" was made by Tiki, a man himself, from the soil of Hawaiki. Tiki made the first man look like himself and breathed into it in order to give it life. This event is re-enacted every time a child grows in a woman's womb, so according to myth, each Maori comes from Hawaiki (Orbell 13). The second myth is the myth of Tura, who has a special role in the initiation of childbirth. Tura teaches the people of Hawaiki how to use fire and sets in motion the birth cycle, thus establishing the human biological cycle and the customs relating to birth (Orbell 14). In these two myths, Hawaiki is the source of human life. The illustration in these myths of how human life has been spawned on Hawaiki shows how valuable the myths of Hawaiki are to Maori cultural traditions.
The Bone People
Hulme creates a new language in The Bone People. The book appears as a hybrid of cultures, just like Hulme's life. She is part-Maori, part-Pakeha (European) as is her character Kerewin Holmes. Kerewin speaks in English mainly, but she, Joe, and Simon seem to converse in a language all of their own. As Simon does not speak, he signs to them while they speak to him in a mixture of English and Maori. "The language employed by Miss Hulme's characters tends to range, back and forth, from the lyrical to the crude" (Kakutani 161). She not only ranges from lyrical to crude, but from English to Maori to Simon's sign language. Hulme allows the reader a glimpse at Maori culture through her use of language, which she manifests in the Maori myths, which are the crux of Maori culture. Hulme blends the Pakeha and Maori cultures as well as myths through her language and use of the ancient myths of the Maori people.
Works Cited
Hulme, Keri. The Bone People. New York: Penguin Books, 1983.
Ihimaera, Witi. Maori. Wellington, New Zealand: A.R. Shearer, Government Printer, 1975.
Kakutani, Michiko. "The Bone People." New York Times 13 Nov. 1985, C23. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Sharon K. Hall. Vol. 39. Detroit: Gale, 1986. 161-62.
Orbell, Margaret. Hawaiki: A New Approach to Maori Tradition. Christchurch, New Zealand: Griffin Press, 1985.
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& Issues(Image of an "Homme Carrefour" from Donald J. Cosentino's Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou [Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1995].)