Polynesian Kinship
p. 60 · Read in the full issue
Moori Pilgrimage to Hawaii
MAKING a strange pilgrimage to Hawaii to perform baptisms for their kindred dead, a party of 19 Maoris arrived in Honolulu on the “Niagara” on April 29 from New Zealand. The major ity of the group are members of two fa mous east coast tribes of Maoris in New Zealand, the Ngati-porou and Ngati-ka hungunu.
They have brought with them (says the Honolulu “Star-Bulletin”) genealogies which tend to show that some of them are descendants of early Pacific voy agers who emigrated from Hawaii to the South Pacific. Primary purpose of their visit is to perform baptisms for their dead ancestors and relatives, in accord with th,e tenet of the Mormon faith which makes it possible for the living to be baptized for their dead relatives.
The pilgrims will spend about three weeks at the Mormon colony at Laie, Oahu.
Some members of the party trace their ancestry to immigrants who came to New Zealand in the Takitimu canoe about 1350 A.D, This canoe, according to legend, was captained by the famed Tamatea-ariki, whose ancestors included two famous chiefs in Rarotonga. Genealogies of these chiefs, in turn, may be traced to the Tahitian chief, Hiro.-Hire’s ancestors are said to have migrated to Tahiti from Hawaii.