Some entertaining pseudo-anthropology, this time related to New Zealand. Kind of funny that a guy who believes in UFOs doesn´t believe in the fairy, but simply must claim that they were "Aryans"?! ChatGPT have the true story, LOL.
Area for further research: could Maori legends about some families having a Middle Eastern background be inspired by the Book of Mormon? The LDS Church regard Polynesians as "Lamanites" and have tried to convert them for a very long time...
Yes — there are Māori legends about “white” or pale-skinned fairy-folk (often called Patupaiarehe) who lived in the forests and misty hilltops of Aotearoa before or alongside the arrival of the Māori. Here are what I found about the original sources, how reliable they are, and what to keep in mind.
📚 Primary/early sources
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The entry in the Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand says that Patupaiarehe “had light skin, and red or fair hair… unlike Māori, they were never tattooed.” teara.govt.nz+2teara.govt.nz+2
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A journal reference: J. White, The Ancient History of the Maori (1887-1891) collects many of these folk-stories. For example, White mentions fair-folk on Mt Moehau with white skin and red hair. haurakiiwihistory.blogspot.com+1
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Another early source: E. R. Tregear's Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (1891) records terms like tūrehu (fair folk) and pakepakehā used for such beings. teara.govt.nz+1
So yes — there are documented Māori-language and early European-Māori collected versions of the legend.
🧐 What do the legends actually say?
Main features:
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The Patupaiarehe live in deep forest or mountain mist, often in hill-forts or mist-hideouts. teara.govt.nz+1
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They tend to have lighter skin or fair hair (red, blonde or light) compared to typical Māori. teara.govt.nz+1
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They avoid sunlight and fire. They’re more active in mist or night. teara.govt.nz+1
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They have magical music, play flutes, seduce or abduct humans in some legends. teara.govt.nz+1
⚠️ Important caveats & interpretive points
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These legends do not uniformly say that the Patupaiarehe were a pre-Māori race of “white people” in the sense of Europeans. The descriptions are symbolic, mythic, and often vary between iwi (tribes).
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Many early collectors (19th-early 20th century) interpreted the “fair skin” or “red hair” as evidence of “pre-island pale invaders,” but this is not a scholarly consensus and often reflects colonial or folkloric reading rather than validated archaeology or DNA evidence.
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The legends function as pūrākau (traditional narratives) with symbolic meaning about the land, the supernatural, and human-spirit relations; reading them directly as history is risky.
🔍 So, to your question: “What are the original sources for these tales?”
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The legends are recorded in Māori oral tradition, by tribal elders and tohunga (priests/expert storytellers).
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They were first collected by scholars like John White, Edward Tregear, and others in the late 19th century.
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Later compilations include works like Maori Tales and Legends (early 20th century) and contemporary ethnographic summaries (e.g., the Te Ara website).
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Example source: “The Hill Fairies” in Wikisource (publishing of older folklore collections) en.wikisource.org
If you like, I can look up specific tribal versions (by iwi) of the Patupaiarehe legend (for example Tūhoe, Ngāti Porou, etc.) and give you exact tribal names, place-names, and published citations. Would that be helpful?
Yes — there are and have been Māori individuals with naturally lighter hair, sometimes even blonde or reddish-blonde, but this has natural and cultural explanations within Polynesian genetics — not evidence of any “lost white race” or European ancestry before contact.
Let’s unpack this clearly:
🌺 1. Natural Blonde or Red Hair Among Polynesians
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Polynesians, including Māori, occasionally have naturally lighter hair — typically reddish-brown, auburn, or sandy-blonde, especially in childhood.
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This trait is not due to European ancestry in most traditional cases. It’s seen in other Polynesian groups such as Samoans, Tongans, and Fijians, who had little or no early European contact.
Genetic basis:
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Genetic studies show this is linked to a recessive variant in the TYRP1 gene, common among Melanesian and Polynesian populations.
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The variant produces lighter pigmentation in hair, even when skin tone remains brown.
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A 2012 study (Science, Vol. 336, p. 554) showed that this blonde trait evolved independently in the Pacific, not from European admixture.
So — “blonde Polynesians” are an indigenous genetic variation, not evidence of earlier outsiders.
🌞 2. Cultural and Environmental Factors
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Many Māori children are described in oral traditions as having flaxen or tawny hair, which may darken with age.
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Sun exposure and saltwater can also lighten hair naturally, especially in coastal communities.
📖 3. In Māori Tradition
Even traditional legends sometimes describe individuals or spirits as having “light” or “reddish” hair (uru kōwhai = yellow head, uru kehu = red or fair-haired).
These phrases occur in traditional songs and genealogies, and they simply reflect natural variation within the Polynesian phenotype — not a foreign race.
Early European collectors (like Elsdon Best and J. White) sometimes romanticized this into ideas about “prehistoric white Māori” or fairy races, but that was a projection, not how Māori themselves understood it.
🧬 4. Modern Genetic Findings
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Genomic studies (e.g., Skoglund et al., Nature, 2016) show Māori share their ancestry with other East Polynesians and, ultimately, Austronesian peoples mixed with older Papuan-related ancestry.
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No trace of pre-European European or “Caucasoid” genes appears in ancient DNA from Polynesian remains.
✅ Summary
| Observation | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Some Māori have naturally light or reddish hair | Polynesian TYRP1 gene variant |
| Seen throughout Polynesia | Indigenous, not European |
| Mentioned in Māori tradition | A natural human variation |
| No ancient DNA evidence for pre-contact Europeans | None at all |
So yes — some Māori can naturally be “blonde” or “light-haired”, but it’s a native Polynesian trait, not evidence for mythical “white fairies” or lost peoples.
Would you like me to show examples of how Māori texts describe uru kehu (“fair-haired”) individuals and what symbolic meanings those descriptions had in pre-contact times?
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