Ngā Pēpeha a ngā Tīpuna

Rated 0 out of 5 (be the first to review)

Ngā Pepeha a ngā Tīpuna – Hirini Moko Mead & Neil Grove

Kia mau ki te kupu a tou matua.
Hold fast to the words of your father.

First published in 2001 a collection of more than 2500 sayings of the ancestors. Neil Grove and Hirini Moko Mead spent more than twenty years collecting and compiling these pēpeha from all over New Zealand inviting comment and contributions from all who read and used their early volumes.

Pēpeha are not just proverbs; the term includes charms, witticisms, figures of speech and boasts. Neither are they historical relics; they feature in the formal speeches heard every day on the marae, and in the oral literature handed down from past generations.

The pēpeha also provide a rich source of language. Their use of metaphor and their economy of words show language that enriches the textbook Māori of today. Sir Apirana Ngata wrote, ‘In former times a wealth of meaning was clothed within a...