Haere Mai Me Tuhituhi He Pukapuka: Muri Iho Ka Whawhai Ai Tatou: Reading Te Rangikaheke

Abstract

This thesis reads Te Rangikaheke's texts through the editorial, Te Arawa and biographic dimensions of the writer and the texts. Te Rangikaheke was a prolific nineteenth century writer who produced over 800 pages of manuscript material. 1 Although he has enjoyed a moderate amount of scholarly attention, this has tended to focus on attribution, cataloguing and tracing publication, transcription and translating, commentary on authenticity and literary quality and his account of history. Specifically, the first core chapter explores issues concerning the editing of Te Rangikaheke's manuscripts by Governor George Grey and the effects of Grey's editing decisions on the texts. This chapter explores the nature of the relationship between Grey and Te Rangikaheke, the effects of this relationship on Te Rangikaheke's texts, and what the dualities of Pakeha/Maori and Governor/Native might mean in terms of the texts. Responding to the calls of American Indian Literary Criticism for studies of Indigenous topics to engage deeply with the contexts of iwi and place, the second core chapter looks at Te Rangikaheke as an Arawa writer and explores issues around identity and articulating an Arawa literary history. Finally, a biography of Te Rangikaheke elaborated from previously known and new biographic details combined with a close reading of his name and three of Te Rangikaheke's letters. Ultimately, it is anticipated that this thesis will forge new pathways into in the study of Wiremu Maihi Te Rangikaheke and his writing, and that these new pathways will clear some much needed space in which a deeper analysis of Te Rangikaheke's writing can be articulated. Furthermore, beyond its focus on a single writer, this thesis extends the scholarship on nineteenth century Maori writing, Maori historical studies, and Maori intellectual history and in this way speaks to a contemporary Indigenous intellectual agenda.