A Witness at the “ends of the earth”
Adrian Bates talks to Graham
and Tui Cruickshank about the knowledge of the one true God—preserved
for millennia in Polynesian culture.
Image iStockphoto/HultonArchive
New Zealand Maoris retain knowledge of the Creator, Io, Who has the same attributes
as the LORD God of the Bible. This knowledge pre-dates any missionary influence.
Since all people groups come from Noah and his family, it should be no surprise
that most have memories of the one true Creator God. The Maori people of New Zealand
are no exception. Their traditions speak of such a God they call “Io Matua
Kore” (Io the Parentless). Graham Cruickshank and his wife Tui, a dynamic
couple, have found that this ancient tradition has been most significant in their
Christian outreach to the Maori and their Pacific island relatives, much like Paul’s
teaching of the “unknown God” to the Athenians on Mars Hill (Acts 17).
It was from their outreach experience that Graham and Tui came upon the significance
of the Io knowledge to the Maori people and the Hebrew Scriptures. This knowledge
had travelled with the ancestors of the Maori in their odyssey from the Middle East
across the planet all the way to Hawaii and from there to New Zealand—to the
ends of the earth.
Biblical history contained in Maori folklore
Graham was first alerted that the Maori culture preserved the knowledge of God by
Daniel Kikawa’s1 book
about Io belief in Hawaii. Recalling the Maori migration from Hawaii, Graham researched
New Zealand Io knowledge and found it to be faithful to that of Hawaii, despite
1,000 years of oral transmission. When he compared the names of Io with the names
and attributes of Almighty God in the Bible he found they agreed precisely—there
were no contradictions.
Graham said, “For me that was enough to know that here was a remarkable treasure
residing in Maori culture.”
Sometimes at a Maori “marae” (meeting house) the speaker will begin,
“Hawaiki, Hawaiki Roa, Hawaiki Nui, Hawaiki Pamamao.” Graham
explained, “The names in this recitation retrace their ancestors’ journey
from the west, beginning in the Middle East, through the Indo-Malay regions and
then out into the wide expanses of the Pacific. To this day, enclaves of Polynesian
peoples remain in places like the Naga Hills in Assam, the Karen Hills of Burma,
the remote parts of Tibet and the islands of Indonesia and Melanesia.
For me that was enough to know that here was a remarkable treasure residing in Maori
culture.
Another remarkable confirmation of Genesis biblical history is found in the folklore
of Polynesian groups dotted around the Pacific. In his book, Io Origins,
Graham details the common denominators in these stories, including:
A man known as Lua-Nu’u, (the second Noah) who left his country, settling
far to the south.
By command of his God, Lua-Nu’u introduced circumcision for all his descendants.
He had two sons, one by a slave girl and the other by a “chieftainess”.
He went up a mountain to sacrifice to his God.
Not only did Graham realise that Lua-Nu’u is the Abraham of Scripture, but
he explained that further details of the folklore delineate Jacob. Even Joseph is
enshrined in these stories, which predate any missionary contact.
A long journey of discovery
Maori chiefs and priests of some tribes have stories of events recorded in the Bible
from over 4,000 years ago, before they immigrated from the Middle East some time
after Noah’s Flood. (Image stockxpert)
Graham’s parents and grandparents were dairy farmers in New Zealand—pioneers
who broke in the land. His great, great grandfather came from Scotland and other
ancestors from Ireland. “Actually, I am a fourth generation Kiwi”,2 Graham said. “I grew
up with Maori in my home district and knew at about age nine that I would marry
a Maori, and did so, marrying Tui when I was 25.”
For Tui, however, four generations in New Zealand is not such a big deal. Her ancestors
are from three of the many Maori tribes: the Ngati Kahu, the Ngapuhi, and the Ngati
Whatua, and they can boast of a much longer sojourn in New Zealand.
As well as dairy farmers, Graham’s parents were active Christians, and for
nearly 50 years ran the district Sunday school, collecting children in the family
car. Graham vividly remembers when he was about age 11 a visitor came and preached
and he was deeply convicted of sin. “I refused to yield, being a first-class,
self-righteous sinner! It took two miserable weeks before I became ashamed that
I was defying God and surrendered my life to Christ.”
Such dramatic encounters with God, including God’s removal of his irksome
stutter, shaped his character and gave him direction for his life-long work. With
his wife, Tui, Graham shared a powerful call to preach the gospel to the Pacific
nations. They spent eight years working in the South Sea islands with Samoans, Tongans,
Fijians and Indians, pastoring cross-cultural churches and working at church planting
and evangelism. Over many years, they have been senior pastors of a large church
and Bible school in Whangarei, a city in the far north of New Zealand.
Graham and Tui’s deep interest in the indigenous “God factor”
they had observed in South Pacific cultures came slowly. Graham had noticed how
the modern university culture intentionally sidelined and even aggressively opposed
any recognition of God in the teaching of science. He could see that the evolutionary
underpinnings for science that these academics insisted upon were nothing to do
with operational science but were virtually a religious belief code.
“True science should examine all the evidence without a closed mind to the
‘God factor’,” Graham said. “The apostle Paul speaks about
those who suppress the evidence about God even when the evidence is before them
(Romans 1:18–19). In fact Paul demonstrated open mindedness
by acknowledging the God factor in Greek culture (Acts 17:22–32).”
Graham and Tui were also influenced by Don Richardson’s landmark book Eternity
in Their Hearts.3
“That book vividly outlined the ‘God factor’ in many diverse cultures,”
Graham said, “preserving knowledge of the one true God and predating any missionary
influence. It was out of these seeds that I started collecting the material that
is now set out in my book
Io Origins.”
The rich legacy of Maori folklore
Graham’s book has a strong appeal to Maori people. “Maori Christians
long for accurate spiritual information about their past,” Graham said. “Evolutionary-based
anthropology has had its own agenda and has actually suppressed the truth about
the indigenous knowledge of the Almighty God—knowledge that is enshrined in
their ancient beliefs about Io.”
Evolutionary-based anthropology has had its own agenda and has actually suppressed
the truth about the indigenous knowledge of the Almighty God—knowledge that
is enshrined in their ancient beliefs about Io.
Io Origins describes how this knowledge travelled with the first Maori
immigrants from their previous home in Hawaii to New Zealand. Belief in the creator
God, “Io”, was once pervasive in Hawaii and the society was peaceful
and benevolent. Their tradition speaks of them travelling from the west and being
known as the Menehune people.
This Hawaii culture was then overrun by enemies from Tahiti who installed their
own bloodthirsty religion that elevated a cruel system of tapu (sacredness upheld
by harsh penalties). Io priests were silenced by death or compelled to cease imparting
Io knowledge.
Others fled from Hawaii carrying Io knowledge with them, some arriving in Aotearoa.4 Later immigrants did not carry
Io knowledge, which is why some tribes in New Zealand have Io knowledge and others
do not. At all times Io knowledge was tapu (sacred) and taught only to chiefs and
tohunga (priests). That is why the early missionaries in both Hawaii and New Zealand
were initially unaware of Io.
In his book, Graham outlines some of the rich legacy of the traditional Maori names
of the Almighty—names that are still in use after millennia of oral transmission.
All the names are biblically sound. Graham has brought together traditions from
both sides of the vast Pacific, New Zealand and Hawaii, and shows that the people
who migrated from the Middle East carried accurate information about Almighty God,
right around the globe.
Pathway of hope and change
For Graham, the information about Io provides an effective pathway to cultural evangelism
to much of Polynesia. The knowledge of Io links directly to their own history yet
it is biblically accurate. He wants to see it widely disseminated.
Graham and Tui have a deep love for the Maori people of New Zealand. They see the
Maori as being under siege today from traditionalists who falsely suggest Christianity
has robbed them of their culture, from modernists who deny the rich heritage of
belief in Io, and from activists who are intent on using Maori culture as a weapon
against Christianity.
Deeply concerned about the welfare of the people of New Zealand and the islands
of the Pacific, Graham and Tui grieve over the way seminaries are churning out graduates
without confidence in the inspired truth of Scripture. Their desire is for seminaries
to reclaim their confidence in the historicity of the events of Genesis, events
such as the global Flood and the Tower of Babel, which link so powerfully with Maori
culture. And they expressed hope for uplift and change.
“We need reformers. We need uncompromising proclaimers of the good news of
the Gospel. There are hopeful signs with some very able Maori pastors with sizable
congregations. But our greatest need is for spiritual revival flowing from a confident
proclamation of the Word of God, beginning in Genesis and turning the people back
to the one true, Creator God—known traditionally in the Pacific region as
Io.”
Related articles
Further reading
References and notes
- Kikawa D., Perpetuated in Righteousness from Hawaii,
Kikawa, 1994. Return to text.
- “Kiwi” is the local term for a New Zealander.
Return to text.
- Richardson D., Eternity in Their Hearts, Regal Books,
California, 1984. Return to text.
- A Maori name for New Zealand, “The land of the long
white cloud”. Return to text.
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