Whanganui letters: A Māori Harry Potter story

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe. Photo / File

A Māori Harry Potter story

For those wishing to extend their knowledge of Māori beyond daily conversation, may I suggest the epic poem Pinepine Te Kura, which tells a story similar to that of Harry Potter.

People living on the Takapau Plains had become weak and impotent, and blamed their troubles on witchcraft emanating over the hills from vengeful northerners. In the early 18th century, Umurangi is born with healing powers that he received in infancy from a flash of lightning from Ranginui. At the wananga school for tohunga he is shown how to remove the makutu's evil effects with his kaunati stick, how to prepare healing kaimoana potions, and finally how to perform the mind-healing therapy sessions that make the well-fed villagers feel reborn and confident again.

Harry Potter aside, Pinepine Te Kura shows how tohunga were trained from birth to protect their kinfolk with a combination of horticultural and agricultural advice, nutritional foods, morale-boosting myths and rituals, and group therapy sessions. You might also like to try the kaunati-kaunoti method of firemaking that was taught to Umurangi.

The story is told the same way as old English story ballads that were also recited from memory, with a strong regular rhythm, and the action leaping from one dramatic event to the next. I have made a webpage for those interested, with some background information about each of its "leaps" - folksong.org.nz/pinepine_te_kura.

JOHN ARCHER
Ohakune

Normal life?

D Partner wrote of knowing people "begging to be released from their life rather than continue with injuries that will prevent a normal life" (Letters, September 9). And this appears to be the point, something that will "prevent" a so-called "normal life", and all the fear and discomfort that goes with that.

What is a normal life? Many people have conditions or disabilities that do not allow them to live what most would call a "normal life". Many people have things that happen to them that change their life from what they considered "normal" before.

The answer to problems, changes, injuries, or even the diagnosis of a terminal condition is not to kill the person, or for the person to kill themselves. Most people faced with the fear and shock make decisions that they later regret. When a person feels hopeless and wishes to end their life, true compassion is standing by that person and helping them to deal with the underlying fears or the shock that has led them to such a decision. It is not offering them the drugs to off themselves or offering to inject a poison for them.

Our proposed law has copied the Oregon requirement of the person being expected to die within six months to qualify.

The Oregon interpretation is that the person will die within six months if they do not receive any life-sustaining treatment, meaning that diabetes, arthritis, and even "complications from a fall" are "terminal" illnesses in Oregon.

Oregon statistics state the most common reasons given for people ending their lives under the Oregon law were "decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable" and "loss of autonomy". [Abridged]

A BENFELL
Gonville

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