ThePolynesian Society is a non-profit organisation based at theUniversity of Auckland, New Zealand, dedicated to the scholarly study of the history, ethnography andmythology ofOceania.
The society was co-founded in 1892 byPercy Smith andEdward Tregear, largely in response to a conviction widely held at the time, that theMāori and other Polynesian peoples were a dying race. Smith and his friends hoped that it would help to preserve the traditional lore of the Māori before it disappeared and provide scholars with a forum for learned discussion of their ethnographic research (Byrnes 2006).
The initial membership of the society was 112, which had grown to 1,300 by 1965. Presidents have includedbishopsH. W. andW. L. Williams;James Pope, Edward Tregear, Percy Smith,Elsdon Best,William Skinner, SirĀpirana Ngata,Harry Skinner, J. M. McEwen,Professor Sir Hugh Kawharu and DameJoan Metge. The present president is Dr Richard Benton.
Until her death in 2006, the society's patron was theMāori QueenTe Arikinui Dame Te Ata-i-rangi-kaahu (1931–2006); Dame Te Ata was succeeded by the current patrons, Le AfiogaTuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi,Head of State of Samoa, and Te ArikiTumu Te Heuheu, Paramount Chief ofNgati Tuwharetoa.
From its earliest days, the society published the quarterlyJournal of the Polynesian Society, which became the society's principal means to publish information about the indigenous peoples ofPolynesia,Melanesia, andMicronesia. The journal is a rich repository of the traditions of Oceania. Its first editors were S. Percy Smith and Edward Tregear. Smith was its chief contributor until his death in 1922. The list of subsequent editors includes W. H. Skinner, Elsdon Best, Johannes C. Andersen, H. D. Skinner, C. R. H. Taylor, W. R. Geddes, W. C. Groves,Bruce Biggs, Melvyn McLean and Richard Moyle. The present editors are Judith Huntsman and Melinda Allen.
In addition to this journal, the society has published many notable monographs, including S. Percy Smith'sHistory and Traditions of the Taranaki Coast (1910) andThe Lore of the Whare Wananga (1913–15); A. Shand'sTheMoriori People of theChatham Islands (1911); Elsdon Best,The Maori (1924) andTuhoe (1925); J. C. Andersen,Maori Music (1934); and C. R. H. Taylor,A Pacific Bibliography (1951), and two catalogues of theOldman Collection of Māori and Polynesian artifacts (2004).
Other major works include A. Ngata andPei Te Hurinui JonesNga Moteatea (1959–1990), a definitive four-volume collection oftraditional Māori song with translations and commentaries, which has been published in a new, enhanced edition byAuckland University Press in association with the Polynesian Society.
A history of the society and its journal, M. P. K. Sorrenson'sManifest Duty: The Polynesian Society over 100 years, and aCentennial Index 1892–1991 (D. Brown, compiler) were published in 1991.
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