Kei te pūtahi o tēnei tuhinga whakapae ko te whakatewhatewha i te whakapapa o te whakaaro Māori (Māori intellectual history) mā ēnei pātai e rua: He aha ā te Māori i tuhituhi ai i te tōmuatanga o te rautau rua tekau? Ā, he pēhea tā rātou wetewete i ngā huatau whakawairua nō waho i te ao Māori?
Ina koa, ko tā te tuhinga whakapae nei he whakaaranga, he whakaatu hoki i ētahi huarahi e toru hei rangahau i ngā whakapapa o te whakaaro taketake: ko te ketuketu rua mahara (archival research); ko te tātari ariā (conceptual analysis); me te reo e whakamahia ana kia wetewete i te kaupapa. Mā te mahi ketuketu rua mahara e āhei ai ki te wānanga i ngā whakaputanga a Wiremu Takana, he kaituhi, he kaiwhakamāori nō Ngāti Kahungunu. Ka whakaputaina tāna tuhinga tuatahi i te tau 1915. Ā, e rua anō i whakaputaina e ia i te tau whai muri mai i 1916. Ko ēnei tuhinga āna e whakatewhatewha ana i te whakamāoritanga o te rongopai me te āheinga o ngā pūrākau Māori kia whakamārama i ngā whakaakoranga Moromona. Kāore anō kia āta tātaritia, kia āta rangahaua āna pukapuka e tētahi atu o mua. Ko te huarahi rangahau tuarua ko te tātari i te whakamāoritanga o ētahi ariā whakawairua e kitea ana i roto i ngā karaipiture o te Hāhi o Ihu Karaiti o te Hunga Tapu o ngā Rā o Muri nei. E toru ngā ariā kua tīpakongia hei tirotiro, arā, ko heaven, hell me baptism. Ā, hei whakawhānui atu i te titiro ki tēnei kaupapa, ka huritaongia ngā hua o te tuhinga reo Māori, arā, ka matapakina ngā take kia tuhituhi i te mahi rangahau i roto i te reo Māori.
I te mutunga iho, mā te āta wānanga i ngā whakaputanga reo Māori a te Hāhi o Ihu Karaiti (LDS) e whakawhānuitia ai tō tātou māramatanga ki te hītori o te mahi whakaputa pukapuka i roto i te Hāhi, te mahi punenga a te Māori, te whakareretanga o ngā tuhituhinga reo Māori, me te hītori o te Hāhi o Ihu Karaiti i Aotearoa nei.
This thesis traces Māori intellectual history by asking two interconnected questions: What were Māori people writing in the early 20th century? And, how have Māori made sense of spiritual concepts from outside of Te Ao Māori?
Specifically, the thesis both proposes and demonstrates three different ways to approach Indigenous intellectual histories: archival work; conceptual analysis; and the language of critical writing. First, archival work enables us to engage with ideas presented in the published writings of Wiremu Takana, a Ngāti Kahungunu translator and writer whose three publications from 1915 and 1916 about the cultural dimensions of spiritual translations have not yet enjoyed critical attention. Second, analysis of the translation (1889) and re-translation (1918) of particular concepts in Latter-Day Saint (LDS) scriptures - that in English are referred to as heaven, hell, and baptism - provides an opportunity to consider translation as a key site for cultural negotiation. Finally, to take a step back, it is instructive to reflect on the critical possibilities of undertaking scholarly work in te reo Māori.
Ultimately, engaging with Māori language LDS publications can expand our shared understanding of Māori publishing histories, Māori intellectual work, the legacy of writing in te reo Māori, and the history of the LDS Church in New Zealand.
