19th-century letters to the editor reveal Māori social media influencers

In the 1800s, members of the Ngāi Tahu iwi of the South Island wrote many eloquent letters to local newspapers about the challenges and prospects of bicultural life.

Christchurch academic Dr Emma Maurice, a Maori woman adopted into the Pākehā world, found strength through researching these letters.

We often hear about the negative effects of colonization, but under this foreign influence Māori achieved something remarkable – they quickly transformed their oral culture into a bilingual and bicultural one, says Maurice (Ngāti Kahungungu ki Heretaunga).

Letters written to local newspapers by Ngāi Tahu members during this period demonstrate a high degree of “bicultural fluency” as well as agency and innovation, she tells Mihingarangi Forbes.

“Māori have been able to develop a second language and culture and become fluent for 50 years. From 1850 to 2024, have there been similar levels of language and cultural proficiency among non-Māori? There’s an answer there, but it’s not true. so that I can tell what it is.”

According to Maurice, in 1850 there were more literate Māori in Aotearoa than literate Pākehā.

In newspapers – the so-called “social networks of their time” – Ngāi Tahu publicly shared their views on the country’s evolution through “letters to the editor”.

By using the platform, Tangata Whenua could communicate directly with South Island rural settler communities and advocate for cross-cultural partnerships, she said.

“(Ngāi Tahu) encourage resource sharing. They encourage land rental. They encourage trade.”

Although there were no letters to the editor from Māori women in newspapers – and little mention was made of women before the 1890s – the words of the “formidable wahine” Hira Moroiti Pohio Traill began to appear in the 1930s.

According to Maurice, Traill used her letters to speak out against the forced conscription of young men into military service, and to directly korero MPs in Canterbury about poor infrastructure.

“I have about 38 letters of correspondence between her and local MPs, covering everything from potholes in the road to uninstalled sewer pipes.”

Maurice says the research topic of Ngāi Tahu’s letters to the editor was “gifted” by Māori language advocate and academic Hana O’Regan.

The letters, published between 1850 and 1950, became the subject of Maurice’s doctoral dissertation. Voices across a century.

For nine years she immersed herself in them through the National Library’s archive of past documents.

As a Māori woman who grew up in the world of pākehā after a closed adoption, she says their strong voices have strengthened her own.

Although Maurice’s “beautiful” adoptive parents knew how important it was for her to connect with her heritage, she was also surrounded by “stereotypical negative narratives” and did not identify as Māori in her youth.

“Most of my friends had straight blonde hair and blue eyes, and in the 80s, the bob was a very big haircut. “I have very curly Polynesian hair, and when I cut my bob, the bangs were like two little ringlets that bounced over my eyebrows… From that moment on, I thought, okay, something has changed in me.”

Entering puberty, Maurice felt an “incredible rage” burning inside as she struggled to find her own sense of identity and belonging.

While she has had good experiences with closed adoptions, she says many other Māori children are not so lucky.

“As a little person, you should be able to look around and see people who reflect you. When you don’t see that there is a level of trauma that you have to go through as an adult to reach that space.”

“This is an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. We need to build a fence at the top to keep our tamariki out of areas where they are potentially unsafe.”

Even after Maurice saw “Māori ethnicity” on her birth certificate when she was in her early 20s, she felt a “big disconnect” from the culture.

“I didn’t see my reflection anywhere. There was a decade or more of a period of my life when I wrestled with these questions of identity.”

Maurice says she was only able to continue her academic journey after making a personal connection with Te Ao Māori in her 30s.

While Maurice feels “at home” in Christchurch, connecting with her tupuna in Hawke’s Bay has been a big part of that.

After living in the area for some time, she enrolled to study at EIT (Eastern Institute of Technology) and was shocked to receive a kananga (ceremonial reception) there.

“Tears just started streaming down my face. I thought, “This is the first time I’m on my whenua. My people have been here for hundreds, if not thousands of years.”

“It was a feeling of, ‘I’m back home,’ and I felt like in a spiritual sense they were like, ‘Welcome home, girl.’