Te Ao Hou and Finding a Community in the City
Olivia Gardenier
By the 1950s, many Māori had moved out of their rural homes and into the big cities of Aotearoa New Zealand. Moving home is hard enough, but moving to a vastly Pākehā city where you are the minority, while leaving your home community and marae behind you can be even harder. Te Ao Hou was a magazine which provided readers with a country-wide Māori community and sense of home.
Proclaiming itself as a “‘marae’ on paper” in its first edition, Te Ao Hou served its mainly Māori readership between 1952 and 1975. It published articles on haka competitions, the Māori Women’s Welfare League and other happenings in the Māori community. It also gave voice to aspiring writers by publishing short stories and poems (like the one shown below). The magazine published roughly 15% of its articles in te reo Māori. Most of these had English translations, meaning te reo learners could read them side by side.
Proclaiming itself as a “‘marae’ on paper” in its first edition, Te Ao Hou served its mainly Māori readership between 1952 and 1975. It published articles on haka competitions, the Māori Women’s Welfare League and other happenings in the Māori community. It also gave voice to aspiring writers by publishing short stories and poems (like the one shown below). The magazine published roughly 15% of its articles in te reo Māori. Most of these had English translations, meaning te reo learners could read them side by side.
Te Ao Hou was not published in a vacuum, but was part of a wider context. This timeline shows the context of Aotearoa New Zealand leading up to and during the publications of Te Ao Hou. It shows some organisations which, like Te Ao Hou, were created to support urban Māori and provide them with a sense of community.
Click the ‘next’ arrow on the right to flick through events on the timeline.
Note: Names of organisations are written as they originally appeared, so some are without macrons.
Click the ‘next’ arrow on the right to flick through events on the timeline.
Note: Names of organisations are written as they originally appeared, so some are without macrons.
This poem was published in Te Ao Hou in 1973. It explores the feelings of cultural dislocation and loss of identity felt when one leaves their home and moves to the city. These feelings were exactly what Te Ao Hou worked to counteract by being a place where readers could feel understood.
Click on the dots to read more about the poem.
Reference: ‘Ko Wai Au?’ Te Ao Hou, vol. 71, 1973, p. 27, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TAH1973.2.10.
Click on the dots to read more about the poem.
Reference: ‘Ko Wai Au?’ Te Ao Hou, vol. 71, 1973, p. 27, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TAH1973.2.10.