Hurai

by Harry Love

Hūrai is a story of Māori and missionaries in the early 19th century. The characters are based loosely on an amalgam of European figures and the movement which originated around Papahurihia, a somewhat mysterious figure known also as Atua Wera — the red/burning god. In the 1830s Papahurihia led a counter-movement to the conventional Christian Mission, using a potent mixture of Old Testament and Māori lore. Calling themselves 'Hūrai' (Jews), they reflected a commonly held notion that Māori were the children of Shem, the lost tribe of Israel. Hūrai is modelled on the Greek Bacchae and, like Euripides' play, explores the emotional consequences for individuals in a clash of religious and cultural values

72 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really amazing adaptation of Euripides' Bacchae (though from the introduction it seems like Love doesn't necessarily want it thought of as an adaptation). The play is set in mid-nineteenth century New Zealand and focuses on a conflict between a Protestant missionary and a Maori man who developed a hybrid religion blending elements of Maori mythology, Judaism, and a few Christian ideas--a religion based on the premise that the Maori are lost descendants of the tribes of Moses. The clash of the two religions is the basis for the re-imagined Pentheus-Dionysus conflict, and in this way it's an appropriate shift for New Zealand because much of the ongoing conflict between the Maori and the Pakeha (New Zealanders of European ancestry) is based on difficulty finding common cultural ground, because both cultures believe in similar concepts (e.g., honor, shame, innocence) but define them very differently. This becomes a central point as the Protestant missionary clashes with the Maori prophet--they use words to mean different things.

Love is clear that there are some substantial differences between Hurai and the Bacchae, including that neither character is a god. Though they both claim to have God on their side, neither is actually endowed with supernatural powers. When the missionary is killed at the end, it is not because the prophet has supernaturally entranced him, it is because he fails to understand the complexity of Maori culture and gravely insults a warrior by interrupting a ritual. We could argue whether the prophet set that scenario up, but he doesn't control the events the way that Dionysus does in the Euripides.
https://youtu.be/1Vzfts2sYfc