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Colonial Discourses Niupepa Maori 1855-1863. By Lachy Paterson. (Otago: University of Otago Press 2006).
Since the Niupepa Maori (newspapers in Maori) were digitised in the mid 1990s, they have sustained major new scholarship. Even digitised, Niupepa Maori are still not easy. Of the nine papers which form the basis of Lachy Paterson's eight year historical study, only one of them was bilingual, the Government run Te Karere Maori (The Maori Messenger). And as Lyndsay Head has pointed out, reading them is not simply a question of being able to read te reo Maori, but understanding "how seamlessly an oral culture translates into a print medium. Most Maori do not distance themselves from their words, but write as if they are standing to speak."1
Paterson points out that nearly all Pakeha and Maori whose texts appeared in the newspapers thought and wrote in their own language first, which makes translation, quoting Sanford Budick, a 'border crossing' (11).2 But it also means the newspapers are an invaluable repository of speech rhythms, vocabulary, proverbial and other expressions and conceptual patterns. Quite apart from their content, which Paterson discusses in depth, the language of the niupepa reveals a world whose oral and linguistic richness are only patchily preserved today. Paterson notes that most of the text in the niupepa was in fact written by Pakeha, explaining government policy, advancing colonial agendas of civilisation, commerce and law; 'propaganda organs'...