Time and the Art of Māori Storytelling

In Time and the Art of Māori Storytelling, Dame Joan Metge explores the distinctive ways in which Māori narratives understand and enact time, history, and relational meaning. Metge challenges Western assumptions about chronology and historical “accuracy,” showing that what some scholars once saw as inconsistencies in Māori accounts across generations are instead part of a rich oral tradition shaped by purpose, memory, and cultural conventions. Māori storytelling is portrayed as dynamic and adaptive, with myths and ancestral narratives continually relevant because they are retold, reorganised, and re-situated in the present moment.

Metge highlights that Māori approaches to time and narrative foreground relational depth, collective memory, and ongoing social relevance rather than linear sequencing alone. Myths and stories are never “out of date”; they evolve with their telling, carrying foundational cultural values, mediating contemporary concerns, and providing frameworks for understanding identity, place, and history.

For the Telling Your Stories Project this article offers a culturally grounded perspective on narrative that enriches storytelling practices. It validates non-Western temporalities and relational meaning-making as pedagogically powerful, supports narrative as a living cultural practice, and affirms storytelling as a way of anchoring learning in both ancestral wisdom and present-day relevance.