Notebook. Hoani R. Waititi. Contains: handwritten accounts and whakapapa of creation, gods, and canoe migration, including that pertaining to the Kingitanga; description of Maori ceremonies and customs; draft of thesis The Maori and education; and list of Maori terms with English translations., 1953 - 1953

Although there were many facets to Hoani Waititi’s life and work, these papers pertain to his research, writing and teaching. Item 1, a typescript songbook, contains Maori songs commonly taught in school settings, two of which are attributed to Ngataki School. Items 2, 8, and 9 are accounts of tribal history by Waititi. Item 2 is handwritten and includes pasted-in photographs and illustrations, and comments written by others. It may have been a college or university research assignment. Pages 53-91 appear in revised typescript form in The story of Whangaparaoa in Item 2. Tribal history pertaining to Whangaparaoa is also found in Item 8. A draft of his BA thesis and a range of cosmogonic, tribal and cultural information are recorded in Item 9. Item 7 is a notebook that dates from an earlier period than Waititi’s other papers and contains an eclectic range of writing and notes, the greater part of which pertain to the whakapapa and activities of Te Whanau-a-Apanui ancestor, Tamahae. The writings in this notebook may be those of Waititi’s grandfather, Te Manihera Waititi, whom he refers to in his foreword to Whangaparaoa : landfall of the fleet in Item 2, and acknowledges as provider of his main sources of information. A key character in illustrations and exercises in Waititi’s Te rangatahi books is named Tamahae, and, as has already been seen, is the name of an ancestor in his stories.

Maori language is the subject of Items 3-6 and 10. They comprise pages of notes, exercises and a Maori-to-English vocabulary. Item 3 is a handwritten notebook and the remainder is typescript sheets, some pasted in to notebooks. This material may have been gathered by Waititi during his own formal study of the language or in his early years of teaching. It bears little resemblance to the style of his Te rangatahi language-teaching publications.