Polynesian Society

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The Polynesian Society is a non-profit organization based at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, dedicated to the scholarly study of the history, ethnography, and mythology of Oceania.

The society was co-founded in 1892 by Stephenson Percy Smith and Edward Tregear, largely in response to a conviction, widely held at the time, that the Māori were a dying race. Smith and his friends hoped that it would help to preserve the traditional lore of the Māori before it disappeared and provide scholars with a forum for learned discussion of their ethnographic research (Byrnes 2006).

The initial membership of the society was 112, which had grown to 1,300 by 1965. Presidents of the Society have included Bishops W. L. and H. W. Williams, Edward Tregear, S. Percy Smith, Elsdon Best, W. H. Skinner, Sir Apirana T. Ngata, H. D. Skinner, J. M. McEwen and Professor Sir Hugh Kawharu. The present President is Dame Joan Metge, and the patron is Dame Te Atairangikaahu, the Māori Queen.

From its earliest days, the society published the quarterly Journal of the Polynesian Society, which became the society's principal means to publish information about the indigenous peoples of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. The Journal is a rich repository of the traditions of Oceania. Its first editors were S. Percy Smith and Edward Tregear. Smith was its chief contributor until his death in 1922. The list of subsequent editors includes W. H. Skinner, Elsdon Best, Johannes C. Andersen, H. D. Skinner, C. R. H. Taylor, G. S. Roydhouse, W. R. Geddes, W. C. Groves, Bruce Biggs, Melvyn McLean, and Margaret Mutu. The present editor is Judith Huntsman.

In addition to this journal, the society has published many notable monographs, including S. Percy Smith's History and Traditions of the Taranaki Coast (1910) and The Lore of the Whare Wananga (1913–15); A. Shand's The Moriori People of the Chatham Islands (1911); Elsdon Best, The Maori (1924) and Tuhoe (1925); J. C. Andersen, Maori Music (1934); and C. R. H. Taylor, A Pacific Bibliography (1951). Other major works include A. Ngata and Pei Te Hurinui Jones Nga Moteatea (1959-1990), a definitive four-volume collection of traditional Māori song with translations and commentaries.

[edit] References

• G.M. Byrnes, 'Smith, Stephenson Percy 1840 - 1922'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 7 April 2006. URL: www.dnzb.govt.nz
• Encyclopedia of New Zealand
• Polynesian Society