Pūrākau: Māori Myths Retold by Māori Writers

by Witi Ihimaera (Editor), Whiti Hereaka (Editor)

A lively, stimulating and engaging retelling of purakau - Maori myths - by contemporary Maori writers.

Ka mua, ka muri . . .

Ancient Maori creation myths, portrayals of larger-than-life heroes and tales of engrossing magical beings have endured through the ages. Some hail back to Hawaiki, some are firmly grounded in New Zealand and its landscape. Through countless generations, the stories have been reshaped and passed on. This new collection presents a wide range of traditional myths that have been retold by some of our best Maori wordsmiths. The writers have added their own creativity, perspectives and sometimes wonderfully unexpected twists, bringing new life and energy to these rich, spellbinding and significant taonga.

Take a fresh look at Papatuanuku, a wild ride with Maui, or have a creepy encounter with Ruruhi-Kerepo, for these and many more mythical figures await you.

Explore the past, from it shape the future . . .

The contributors are: Jacqueline Carter, David Geary, Patricia Grace, Briar Grace-Smith, Whiti Hereaka, Keri Hulme, Witi Ihimaera, Kelly Joseph, Hemi, Kelly, Nic Low, Tina Makereti, Kelly Ana Morey, Paula Morris, Frazer Rangihuna, Renee, Robert Sullivan, Apirana Taylor, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Clayton Te Kohe, Hone Tuwhare, Briar Wood.

Genres: Short Stories, Mythology, Fantasy, Fiction, Anthologies, Indigenous, Fairy Tales

400 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2019

About the author

Witi Ihimaera is a novelist and short story writer from New Zealand, perhaps the best-known Māori writer today. He is internationally famous for The Whale Rider.

Ihimaera lives in New Zealand and is of Māori descent and Anglo-Saxon descent through his father, Tom. He attended Church College of New Zealand in Temple View, Hamilton, New Zealand. He was the first Māori writer to publish both a novel and a book of short stories. He began to work as a diplomat at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973, and served at various diplomatic posts in Canberra, New York, and Washington, D.C. Ihimaera remained at the Ministry until 1989, although his time there was broken by several fellowships at the University of Otago in 1975 and Victoria University of Wellington in 1982 (where he graduated with a BA).[1] In 1990, he took up a position at the University of Auckland, where he became Professor, and Distinguished Creative Fellow in Māori Literature. He retired from this position in 2010.

In 2004, his nephew Gary Christie Lewis married Lady Davina Windsor, becoming the first Māori to marry into the British Royal Family.

Reviews

[Jherane Patmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I started this book, I thought I knew nothing about Māori culture and their stories, turns out a lot of their culture has been present in Hollywood (without credit), so I've been inattentively familiar with some versions of their stories and concepts.

The retellings in Pūrākau are clever with many unexpected modern twists that kept the characters relatable and made me feel more aware of how I, as a reader, moved through the world.

The creation stories grabbed me, but the stories on Pounamu were probably my fav.
Nic Low’s 'Te Ara Poutini' story that bordered the line of sci-fi/fantasy and Frazer Rangiihuna's Īhe and Her are easily my favourite of the collection and I'm now obsessed with finding more of his work. I hadn't expected poetry to be included, and I love whoever came up with that idea and also the person that chose to include Keri Hulme's ‘I have a Stone'.

Almost all the stories rested within my soul, so (in addition to time spent googling the 'original' Māori stories) I read them slowly. I laughed/sighed/cried deeply. I hope to revisit this anthology in a year or two.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

He nui te aroha mo tenei pukapuka // Much love for this book.

I was introduced to this collection at a Lit Crawl event in Wellington at the end of last year but reading the book myself still blew me away.
The creation myths are of course familiar and cleverly updated for modern times. It was some of the less well known stories that I was even more taken with only to realise after some googling to find the more traditional version, that I did kind of know it.
It is hard to believe that only a few of the pieces were written specifically for the book with most of the pieces actually spanning several decades of writing - they all seem to fit together so well.

[Elizabeth (Plant Based Bride) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pūrākau: Māori Myths Retold by Māori Writers brings together talented Māori voices to reimagine the stories of Māori oral tradition in a variety of forms, from poetry to modern retellings. Not only did reading these stories pique my interest to seek out the original myths, but they also made me want to explore these authors' other works!

Each and every story had something of value to bring to the collection, but my absolute favourites were:
- Me aro koe ki te hā o Hineahuone! by Jacqueline Carter
- Hinepūkohurangi and Uenuku by Kelly Joseph
- Shapeshifter by Tina Makereti
- Te Ara Poutini by Nic Low
- Kurungaituku by Ngāhuia Te Awekotuku, and:
- Te Pura, Warrior Taniwha of Te Wairoa by Renée

I would highly recommend this collection and I am so glad we chose it for our book club pick for March!



Trigger/Content Warnings: death, incest, suicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, animal cruelty


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[Teo · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars.

I can’t believe I’m finally done reading this book, it felt never-ending. I’m sad to say I found this incredibly boring, and multiple times I didn’t even want to pick it up and continue. 

I pretty much knew from the get go I would not enjoy this considering that in one of the first stories, erections and sex with soil were part of the subject matter. I went into this hoping to expand my knowledge of Māori myths, but I wasn’t expecting there to be this much sexual content. It just completely changed the mood for me, and I realised many of the stories probably wouldn’t be up my alley. 

I only liked 5 of them— Born. Still., Tāwhaki: Real Life, Hinepūkohurangi and Uenuku, Moving Mountains, and Kurungaituku— out of the 33 in the book. Pretty sad. There is plenty of variation in the formats here, so I’m sure there will be something to like for everyone though. I found the fact that there was a fictional oral history of a band to be particularly cool. 

Half a star gets given for the few stories I liked.

[merve · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was my first introduction to māori mythology and i really enjoyed reading about the myths. some of the retellings were great, but some of them were just okay for me. this definitely made me want to learn more about māori myhtology though.

[Selina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this retake of all the traditional Maori myths and legends. Includes poems amongst the stories told be different writers. Some of them quite clever. For adults though, some of it not really suitable for children!

[Lis Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of recent fantastic fiction by Māori writers, based on Māori creation myths and legends. There's a wide variety, here, some retelling Māori creation myths, some telling the tales of Māori legendary heroes, both in something like their original context, and some in more modern settings. Still others are the Māori gods and mythological figures interacting with humans in very contemporary settings.

Most of these stories worked very well for me, despite my having little to no prior exposure to Māori mythology and culture. Yes, the mythological personalities and their stories don't have the recognizable familiarity for me that Greek or Celtic or Norse mythological figures and tales do, but that's part of the fun, meeting new stories and personalities, and figuring out what it means or represents.

Other stories, though...

One is a story of a person playing a--computer game? augmented reality game? But he's an unpleasant person, the narrative voice of the game is unpleasant, and nearly everyone he encounters in the course of the game is unpleasant. I'm not into gaming, but other gaming-based stories have nevertheless given me a reason to care what happens to the characters. This one, I finished merely to be sure it wasn't the unfamiliar cultural aspects that were putting me off. It wasn't; these characters were just unpleasant and I didn't care what happened to them.

The last--might have worked a lot better for if I actually had the assumed cultural background in Māori myth and legend. It was presented in an intentionally distancing, academic style, commentary on the story rather than telling the story. It didn't work for me, but I think this was a case of "wrong reader," rather than a failing of the story or the writing. I kept thinking, I bet this is really interesting if you already know the story and can therefore appreciate the commentary...

Overall, though, this is an excellent and enjoyable introductory collection. Recommended.

I received this book as a thank you for having volunteered on CoNZealand, the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

[Vincent Konrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. It’s a thick book but so compelling that that doesn’t matter.

There’s a dialogue by Wilde in which the insufferable Gilbert argues that too much is written for the page and not for the voice, and it suffers for it. The majority of this collection would have pleased him, as the language flows aurally and one feels they are being told a tale rather than that they are reading words on a page. Suppose it comes with an oral tradition.

Some of the pieces have been written for the book, but the majority are collected from existing work spanning the last forty odd years. Their arrangement allows the reader to get a grasp of the mythology as a whole, while the individuality of each piece lets them stand out on their own significance. This also initiates one into the sense of reality that these myths have; they are at once true events that happened and just stories, perhaps with an aetiological purpose or a moral. Having read about a character in one context (Tangaroa as one of a bunch of rowdy sons with divorced parents), they remain that instance while also taking on other forms (Tangaroa as god of the sea who must be placated), being at once a familiar and a strange entity; a real human and a god.

The bringing together of these pieces allows for themes to emerge from the whole, which again initiate one into the tikanga that they represent. Ihimaera cheekily notes that the theme of asking permission to use things may be relevant to arrogant young writers (who may be later accused of plagiarism).

While there were a couple that I wasn’t into, that’s my problem for opposing certain forms (most poetry; story via interview). This also represents very much of a canon, with little from younger writers, but this is partly its purpose. Can hardly fault a work for following its own rules, and as a primer on Māori writers it gives a good taste of the big names that one has heard many times but neglected to actually read anything of.

Thoroughly entertaining, and whet my appetite for more of the same—in particular it got me excited to read ‘Black Marks on the Whit Page’, which I have had sitting there for a while without quite rousing the interest to open it.

[Zoe Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of stories. My only wish was that I was more familiar with the original Māori myths so that the retellings had more context. However, even without the background knowledge I still found the stories really entertaining.

[royaevereads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favourites:
- Papatūānuku by Whiti Hereaka
- Hine-tītama - Ask the Posts of the House by Witi Ihimaera
- Shapeshifter by Tina Makereti
- Moving Mountains by Clayton Te Kohe
- Kurungaituku by Ngāhuia Te Awekotuku
- Blind by Kelly Ann Morey

[Robbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with any compilation of short stories, some of these are great, some average, and some terrible. Fortunately, not so many are terrible.

[Christina Van Der Velde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed, but a lot of variation between different authors and their styles and how much of a match that was. A few standouts for me: -Hine-tītama - Ask the posts of the house
-Hinepūkohuhangi and Uenuku
-Te Ara Poutini

[Angelique Simonsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the retelling of these myths. Modern twists to the tales make the identifiable. My favourites had to be the creation myths

[Nat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maori myths reimagined by some of New Zealanders best indigenous Maori writers .

Loved this collection of short stories and the beautiful way in which it was put together .

[Gift]

I liked the premise of Pūrākau- in order to keep old stories alive we shouldn’t be afraid to re-tell them. Pūrākau is full of new, old, and semi old stories which have origins in Māori mythology. All of the authors were free to choose how to incorporate the “original” myths into their own storytelling. That is why this book is so diverse. This diversity makes it special and thrilling. Unfortunately, it also makes it difficult for the reader to fully concentrate on one or another topic. Even though I was able to enjoy the diversity I also struggled with completely different types of narratives and genres. There were a couple of chapters that I liked but the majority was just impalpable for me. I am completely new to Māori myths and culture and was therefore not able to connect and crave for more and more details. I am also an impatient reader who doesn’t like to be interrupted. It was just too much going on at the same time and I wasn’t able to connect with the majority of the characters and/or authors.

I don’t think that it was the book´s fault. It just wasn’t the right time and I didn’t have the right mindset for this book.

DNF at 30%

[Tama · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started on Nic Lowe’s ‘Te Ara Poutini’ for the reason that he came to dinner at my family home. A very big CGI-feat kind of story, only with blockbuster budgets within a short story. Well realised little myth.

Keri Hulme’s preceding poem is okay.

Prologue by Whiti Hereaka gives good vibes for the project.

Hone Tuwhare’s ‘We Who Live in Darkness’ is magnificent. Putting me in the place of a young god flexing earthy fingers in fascination of life. A wonderful scene.

Hereaka’s Papatuanuku POV is certainly a more grounded take ron the story. Even though she is described to be in a room at points I still picture the large woman and her small sons. The big questions she is asking herself are very human. They cover up the God’s mindset and worldview.

This Hineahuone shows how sexual our mythology is. Ihimaera writes a piece that feels like a Murakami short story, but Māori and with rapey shit going on. The use of baseball is not at all from an Aotearoa basis, but Murakami uses baseball often. No shame. I was confused whether these relations really were supposed to be gods or if they were complete metaphor for what came before. And why Talia was talking about her pāpā? Makareti having a husband called Glen and several other kids with him? Dunno. It’s a pretty decent piece.

This Māui/Sina one made me very happy that this is a collection of stories led by brown characters. Woop. Nothing has been bad yet, maybe one or two of the poems.

The way Hemi Kelly brings a narrative of white Māori kid being taught by loving kuia about rongoa grounded in a respect for tradition made this a lovely read. This is a wholesome story.

Patricia Grace’s take on Rona is a well written safe one. It doesn’t add many new details. It’s strange to read this because all the other stories are heavily subversive and have personality via the given author.

This Hinepūkohurangi story by Kelly Joseph, jumps around dramatically in places, and wraps things up in sudden unexplained resolutions and changes. They rush over the reasons the photographer has in commitment to the exploitation of this being. I didn’t understand not believe how he went through with it. He needed to be utterly convinced that it was the right decision, when there was a constant sense of self-doubt that made it unbelievable. And Pūkohurangi’s moment of trust in the face of abusiveness was strange, it seemed knowing and complicit in that.

Ihimaera’s memoir excerpt is a good bit of writing. It’s showing off. Enough said.

Clayton Te Kohe’s ‘Moving Mountains’ is the most surprising piece so far. Pleasantly surprising. A not overtly traditional myth. A made up body of work in the punk scene. What inspired this? I am desperate to know. It’s quite a good idea. Māori punk band, been and gone. With energy and the ability to have come up with some invigorating stuff, with a vision behind them. I look forward to Clayton pulling through with a collection of such things, please.

David Garry’s was fun half of the time. The spelling and punctuation for in the way of my reading.

Half of these pieces are pretty good. I eventually only took note of these which impressed.

Finishing this after midnight when I was playing video games for two hours instead of giving this book one last half hour.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3626838.html

It’s an anthology of both newly commissioned work and pieces published in the last forty years or so, addressing the core strands of Māori mythology. I confess I felt somewhat thrown in at the deep end; it was only as I reached the end of the book that I found quite a large and useful chink of explanatory matter that would have helped my appreciation of the stories. For once I would advise readers to start at the back.

At the same time, I’m very appreciative of this sort of effort. I’ve read an awful lot of adaptations of Celtic Myth, and the Matter of Britain has not exactly been neglected by recent writers either; the Matter of Aotearoa is important too. And even without the background knowledge of What It’s All About, these are generally good stories by names which are new to me - the only author I’d previously head of is Keri Hulme. I guess the ones that grabbed me most where those with links to cultural setups I already knew about - eg “Māui Goes to Hollywood” by David Geary, which mixes Māui the trickster with 20th-century mythical figures like Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, or “Moving Mountains” by Clayton Te Kohe, which looks at shared history, culture and creativity through a music fan’s love for a long-since dissipated band. But they are all stimulating and I think I would like a paper copy of the book, to be able to riffle between stories and explanation more readily.

[Jonathan Natusch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard a great review of this book on RNZ, and figured I might as well pick up a copy. I also figured it couldn't possibly be as great as the review said it was (it was a very gushing review...). However, it really is that good!

Some short story collections suffer from everything feeling too much the same. This collection, though thematically linked, is wonderfully diverse. There are old-school re-tellings, apocalyptic sci-fi renditions, extremely clever poetry, pop-culture reimaginings - it's impossible to get bored. Throughout the entire almost-400 pages, there was just one story and one poem that didn't leap out and grab me. That's pretty damned impressive. I'd start naming a few of my favourites, but there's just too many to mention.

Basically, what I'm saying is go out and buy this book.

[Helle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of re-worked myths, just accessible enough for the non-expert reader to gain necessary context without dumbing down for a non-Māori audience. The creation myths were a particular joy, and I really enjoyed seeing how different writers tackled the same material.

Having completed the book, I feel like I now have a rough grasp not only on Māori mythological history – but also on the multiplicity and sense of future possibility that those myths can give.

Particular highlights for me were ‘Moon Story’, Patricia Grace, ‘Born. Still.’, Briar Grace-Smith and Witi Ihimaera’s various stories, which offer interpretations of the original myths while grappling with them in interesting ways.

[Tiff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dejo aquí mis citas favoritas de la primera historia:

1. "A story, then, is a dangerous thing for the reader; to allow yourself to open your mind and your heart to creatures who need you to survive, who need you to live. Ah, but you will face whatever danger there might be, your craving for us is that strong. Our relationship is symbiotic but is it mutual, or parasitic?


"Still, it is enough for you to glimpse the world of the other. Through stories you are immortal; a god capable of living one hundred lifetimes or more. Through stories, you can achieve the impossible and travel through time. Past, present, future- all able to be lived and felt by you. The lives you can live within a story are endless. The lives you can consume are countless.

[Cheryl Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a while to get going on this one but once I started at the beginning rather than dipping, it flowed along better for me.

Some original stories were less familiar to me so I needed to do some research, while others, more familiar, leaped into life.

Some contemporary approaches worked better than others: Keri Hulme's Getting It and Ihimaera's Niwareka and Mataora are differently fascinating, David Geary's Maui Goes to Hollywood is extremely funny while Kelly Joseph's Hinepokohurangi and Uenuku filled in a few gaps for me.

Overall, it's a delicious collection, reminiscent of the Into the World of Light series of the 1980s

[Parker Ryu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a poetry person at all so those were a bit harder to really understand but I so seriously loved a lot of the other stories in this anthology. I didn't know anything about Maori mythology except for what I watched through Moana so I'm glad to know a little bit more now. It's so interesting how similarities between myths in different cultures can exist but also be so different at the same time. Serious kudos to all the authors involved in the production of this anthology, and the work they actively do to keep their histories and culture alive.

[Merel O · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this on my recent trip to NZ and loved it. As a European woman, I wasn't familiar with Maori legends and myths, but this book was a nice introduction. I can imagine it's also nice if you already know the stories, because you can appreciate the author's creativity even more.
The stories are beautifully written and contain some very important wisdom. I already recommended it to some people I know.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely dazzling. I could hardly put it down. The retelling of myths I already knew was clever and beautiful, and I’m excited to discover the traditional tellings of the myths I first encountered in this form. It’s rare that I feel like an anthology has no low points, but this is one of those gems. I’ll go back to this book again and again.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eclectic take on pūrākau (traditional stories) retold by contemporary Māori writers. A collection of short stories you can dip into. Some of these stories give me that not-sure-how-to-describe it feeling when I hear or read about the mystical aspect of Te Ao Māori - as if I am witnessing these taniwha, at us and patupairahe myself.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun fact, I used to live in New Zealand. During my years there I came across a lot of Maori mythology and stories and always loved them. This book was a bit like coming home. I was familiar with a lot of the stories, however, that didn't hinder my enjoyment of them at all. Highly recommend if you are interested in Maori culture and myths.

[Maddi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book!! I really loved this book, it was super cool to see modern verisons of Māori myths. My only reason why I didn't give this 5 stars was because some of the stories were a little slow and kind of strayed away from the myth it was trying to re-tell. But overall I really loved this book, and would recommend it to anyone whether you're from New Zealand or not. :)

[Sukie Conley · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible collection of short stories that weave together to create an essence of Māori lore without giving away all of its richness. The stories are an invitation to the reader to listen closely and dig deeper to find the fruits of truth they hold for the people and place where they come from.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the different takes on Māori myths. I didn't know much about the mythology before but still felt like I got a lot from this collection. The notes in the back gave some context which I appreciated. This book introduced me to many fantastic authors that I hope to read more from in the future.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a lovely collection of retellings of Māori Myths. I recommend familiarizing yourself with the original myths before reading these so that you have a richer experience with each poem/story. I loved every single story which is rare for me with short story collections. Even the prologue was beautiful and utterly powerful.