Post #455196 by Paipo on Wed, May 20, 2009 4:53 PM

I'm not sure how they define "Maori", because only two of those weapons are authentic - the mere and the taiaha. I've never even seen a "Stingray Spear" in any book on Polynesian material culture, but it looks like it would be pretty handy for fishing in a lagoon. A tarerarea might have been more useful against a rampaging Shaolin Monk:
"...the darts are 10 or 12 feet long, and are made of hard wood and are barb'd at one end. They handle all their arms with great agility particularly their long pikes or lances, against which we have no weapon that is an equal match except a loaded musquet (sic)." (James Cook)

That style of shark tooth club is Hawaiian - here in NZ they were just single edged tools used for preparing food. At least they gave the Taiaha some respect. There are a couple of great accounts of the taiaha vs. sword battles in the book "Maori Weapons in Pre-European New Zealand". This looks like it would be pretty entertaining too - I wish we got a Maori TV signal here!