Political critique and genealogical vision in te oriori a Rihi Puhiwahine, 1870s

Abstract

Long before twentieth-century scholars developed the language to describe 'settler colonialism', nineteenth-century Māori writers, composers, and storytellers critiqued British imperialism and theorized colonial violence. In mōteatea, letters, and kōrero heke iho (narratives passed down), tūpuna Māori asked what British colonial settlement would mean for te ao Māori, the Māori world. As they reflected on the changes wrought by imperialism, tūpuna offered guidance for future uri (descendants). This is an article about the ways that one wahine Māori critiqued colonization and imagined Māori futures in the context of mid-nineteenth-century colonial invasion. More specifically, it is an article about how Rihi Puhiwahine, a renowned composer, guided her descendants through a world disfigured by British imperialism.