June 27, 2013
Tainui creation stories brought into the light
A previously unpublished book by the late Pei Te Hurinui Jones will be published this weekend.
Tama Potaka, who helped edit 'He Tuhi Mareikura' along with wife Ariana, Dr Jones’ great granddaughter, says it is one of a wealth of manuscripts and tāonga associated with the Maniapoto scholar that are held is a special room at the Waikato University library.
They include translations of Shakespeare plays, Ngā Iwi ō Tainui, Ngā Moteatea and other well know works.
Mr Potaka says 'He Tuhi Mareikura' records the creation of the world according to Tainui lore and priestly custom.
"He Tuhi Mareikura is his epic book written over about 12 years in the 1940s and 1950s and there are various manuscripts, each with a different angles and different words, and one of the key challenges was selecting the manuscript we thought best captured all his various writings on this subject," he says.
The book is in both English and Māori, but as separate works rather than translations.
'He Tuhi Mareikura' will be launched on Sunday at Te Tokanganui-ā-noho Marae in Te Kuiti.
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