'Te Kāinga Tupu': Māori Cultures of Travel, 1888-1918

Abstract

This thesis examines Māori cultures of travel from the 1880s until the end of World War I. It will consider new forms and reasons underlying Māori travel during this period. Practices such as sport and European-style education were introduced into Māori communities over this time and Maori adopted these pragmatically to suit their own local concerns. The appearance of Māori rugby players, classical performers, professional careerists and service men in the streets of London suggests that new types of mobility were grounded in these introduced cultural practices. At the same time, the mobility of these travellers provides another position from which to view the agency of Māori communities to be more than a passive recipient of cultural change. Through travel they made new connections and participated in a wider network of exchange. Throughout this engagement with modernity, these travellers retained important connections to their home and local frameworks of identity. Using three case studies, this thesis will examine how Māori travellers challenged conventional trajectories of modernisation and culture loss, and embodied new possibilities for cultural continuity and change.