Under The Microscope

THE ORIGINS OF THE FIRST NEW ZEALANDERS, edited by Douglas Sutton; Auckland University Press, 1994; 270 pp; $39.95

The origins of the first New Zealanders has long been shrouded in the mists of myths and legends. The story of Maui fishing up the North Island satisfied me as a 10-year-old but, even then, I wondered about the people and how they really tied in with this story.

The Origins of the First New Zealanders is edited by Douglas Sutton, a senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Auckland. This is not a book for the average reader to approach lightly, but is a scholarly look by a number of contributors at the evidence and past ideas concerning Polynesian colonisation of the Pacific.

The writers focus predominantly on archaeology and linguistics, and their expertise and passion is evident. Each one helps to fit together the jigsaw of early New Zealanders. Did the Polynesian have their origins in the Lapita people that drifted to the east of the Pacific before their later colonisation of the west and finally New Zealand? When did it happen, who were these people, how did they change? There are so many questions, so many problems to be solved.

This book will not answer them all -- and does not make the attempt -- but it will point a reader on the road to looking at the evidence, comparing the data and searching for more material. If it helps to answer part of the puzzle, that is fine; if it makes a reader decide to do further research, better still. Any book that helps to demystify our origins provides inspiration.

With a Maori mother and Irish father, Kathleen Dunlop has long had an interest in Polynesian colonisation, history and archaeology.