Paul Burns
15-01-2008, 11:27 AM
Several years ago I speculated how David had such a phenomenal memory. I wondered if it might in part be explained by the extent of learning that Maori people transmitted over several centuries without writing. I knew I had read about this and spent time this morning tracking it down.
In offering this as the focus for my tribute I don't wish to take away anything from David's unique genius. Complex skills seldom have a simple explanation. If his ancestry was a factor in his amazing recall, he chose to apply it in a new way, combine with other skills and many insights that were his own.
The quote is from Eldon Best's "The Maori School Of Learning" published in 1923 and available at http://io.knowledge-basket.co.nz/taonga/contents/taonga/text/dm/dm6.html
"Let me give two examples of Maori memorizing-powers. During the winter of 1896 I obtained from an old native of the Ruatahuna district the words of no less than 406 songs, together with much information of an explanatory nature pertaining to them. All these songs were given from memory - not one was in written form. Again, when Tamarau Waiari appeared before the Land Commission at Ruatoki in order to explain the claim of his clan to certain lands, he traced the descent of his people from an ancestor who flourished thirty-four generations ago. The result was a long table of innumerable branch lines, of a multitude of affinitive ramifications. This marvellous recital occupied the attention of the Commission for three days. The old man gave much evidence as to occupation, extra-tribal marriages, &c., and the genealogical table contained well over fourteen hundred names of persons."
In offering this as the focus for my tribute I don't wish to take away anything from David's unique genius. Complex skills seldom have a simple explanation. If his ancestry was a factor in his amazing recall, he chose to apply it in a new way, combine with other skills and many insights that were his own.
The quote is from Eldon Best's "The Maori School Of Learning" published in 1923 and available at http://io.knowledge-basket.co.nz/taonga/contents/taonga/text/dm/dm6.html
"Let me give two examples of Maori memorizing-powers. During the winter of 1896 I obtained from an old native of the Ruatahuna district the words of no less than 406 songs, together with much information of an explanatory nature pertaining to them. All these songs were given from memory - not one was in written form. Again, when Tamarau Waiari appeared before the Land Commission at Ruatoki in order to explain the claim of his clan to certain lands, he traced the descent of his people from an ancestor who flourished thirty-four generations ago. The result was a long table of innumerable branch lines, of a multitude of affinitive ramifications. This marvellous recital occupied the attention of the Commission for three days. The old man gave much evidence as to occupation, extra-tribal marriages, &c., and the genealogical table contained well over fourteen hundred names of persons."