This year, I’m limiting my fictional reading to local authors. To kick off, I’ve just started The Parihaka Woman: An Epic Story of Love and War, by Witi Ihamaera.
Mixed into the promised epic story is the author’s own more modern thoughts and opinions, frequently expressed with deep emotion.
In Chapter 8, Ihamaera touches on the topic of historical accuracy, pointing out the biased and restrictive position where written accounts are prioritised over oral evidence in determining historical fact. Cultures and peoples without written histories are completely disregarded, missing the fact that these communities must have their own way of passing on knowledge, that is, of retaining history.
He puts it like this.
Why should an oral account be suspect? Māori have had hundreds of years to hone the memory. Yes, it’s oral: tough. Get over it … Let Māori write the history that we want to, from our own sources and our own perspective, that’s all I’m saying.
Witi Ihamaera, The Parihaka Woman, p.85
The Reo Project | Day 176