Paratene Te Okawhare

No details.



    Non-fiction

  • The Lore of the Whare-wananga: or, Teachings of the Māori College on Religion, Cosmogony, and History. Written down by H. T. Whatahoro from the teachings of Te Matorohanga and Nepia Pohutu, priests of the Whare-wananga of the East Coast, New Zealand. English trans. S. Percy Smith. Vol. 1. - Te Kauwae-runga, or ‘Things Celestial.’ New Plymouth, N.Z.: Printed for the [Polynesian] Soc. by Thomas Avery, 1913. Rpt. New York: AMS Press, 1978.
  • S. Percy Smith writes that these two volumes emerged after a hui in the Wairarapa District in the late 1850s decided that three Māori tohunga Te Matorohanga, Nepia Pohuhu and Paratene Te Okawhare should teach the early history of the Māori in New Zealand and that this information should be recorded by H. T. Whatahoro and Aporo Te Kumeroa. Whatahoro then kept his notes for fifty years before S. Percy Smith made a copy of the original documents as did the tribal Committee ‘Tane-nui-a-rangi’. The volumes, written in the original Māori text by Whatahoro with transcription and English translation by S. Percy Smith, contain two bodies of information: Volume One deals with Te Kauwae-runga - ‘Things Celestial’ and Volume Two discusses Te Kauwae-raro - ‘Things Terrestrial’. The six chapters in Volume One comprise a detailed account of the construction of a Whare-wananga and its ritual and teaching. The tohunga also describe Te Po [or ages of darkness], the Whare-Maire and the Whare-Porukuruku, the Pou-Tiri-Ao [or guardian angels or spirits], and Io-Matua, the supreme god. The following chapters outline the names of the twelve heavens, describe the marriage of Ranginui and Papatuanuku and the creation of their seventy offspring, recount the ages of Nga Po [darkness or chaos], and the separation of Rangi and Papa, describe and list the apas [or messengers] of the gods, the separation of the dwellings of the gods, the sanctification of Tane and Tupai and other activities of Tane, the three baskets [or kete] of knowledge and two stones, wars of the gods, and the creation of the world and humankind with a whakapapa from Tane-matua though to Ngatoroirangi. Stories of the gods follow plus astronomical notes. It concludes with some accounts of Maui and Mataoro.
  • The Lore of the Whare-wananga; or Teachings of the Māori College on their History and Migrations, etc. Written down by H. T. Whatahoro from the teachings of Te Matorohanga and Nepia Pohutu and other priests of the Whare-wananga of the East Coast, N.Z. Trans. and annotated by S. Percy Smith. Vol. 2. Te Kauwae-raro, or Things Terrestrial. New Plymouth, N.Z.: [Polynesian Soc.], 1915.