The People Before

In “The People Before,” Shadbolt explores the White colonial attitude toward land ownership and contrasts that viewpoint with the way the Māori people view land. Representing the colonial mindset, the father views land ownership as an emblem of economic independence and land itself as a commodity to be tamed into submission for the purpose of making a successful living. While the narrator’s father does indeed express sentimentality regarding the work he has put into farming…

The interaction between the White New Zealanders and the Māori tribe who come to visit their former land is a telling portrayal of postcolonial dynamics in New Zealand in the mid-20th century. While the old man represents the last of the pre-colonial Māori culture, Tom is his postcolonial counterpart several generations removed. With an English first name and fluency, Tom’s deference to the current landowners shows an acknowledgement that the land has passed to new…

In “The People Before,” memory functions as something that can strengthen communal bonds and preserve cultural history. In the Māori culture, tribal stories and memories are passed down generationally via oral tradition, which is how Tom Taikaka comes to describe the lay of the land without ever having visited. In this way, even though the Māori people have been dispossessed of their land, tradition and heritage actively live on through the act of sharing memory…