Te awa atua : menstruation in the pre-colonial Maori world : an examination of stories, ceremonies and practices regarding menstruation in the pre-colonial Māori world / by Ngāhuia Murphy.

"Based on a Masters thesis."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 149-176).

Pao -- He korero tataki : introduction (Theories ; Methodology ; Chapter outline) -- Putea whakairo : theoretical framework (Kaupapa Maori : gate-crashing the academy ; Mana wahine : our story is written in our blood ; the politics of domination ; Atua wahine ; An agenda for decolonisation) -- Nga huanui i whaia : methodology (An agenda of transformation ; ceremony ; my participants ; Indigenous autoethnography : keeping the fires burning) -- Maui (Legacies of terror ; Gender balance ; Maui the trickster ) -- Kurawaka (Sacred lore/sacred law ; Menarche and matrilineal rituals ; A dedication ; Sisters and brothers ; Restriction ; Menstrual spaces ) -- te awa tapu : potent not pollutant (The power to overwhelm ; Protection ; Women and war ; Atua kahu in war ; Multiple meanings ) -- He whakatepenga : conclusions.

"Te awa atua is a ground-breaking study of menstruation in pre-colonial Maori society. Many early ethnographic accounts of menstrual rites were distorted beyond recognition by the colonial lense of their authors, yet their misinterpretations continue to be accepted as authoritative... By examining stories about menstruation located in Maori cosmologies, tribal histories, oral literatures, ceremonies and rites, Ngahuia Murphy argues that menstruation was seen as a medium of whakapapa (genealogy) that connected Maori women to their pantheon of atua (deities). Ancient rites, recorded in tribal songs and chants, reveal that menstrual blood was used for psychic and spiritual protection. these examples unveil striking indigenous constructs of womanhood that radically challenge notions of female inferiority and menstrual pollution"-- Back cover.

Some text in Maori.