The Tūrehu and otherworld music traditions in Aotearoa

Record summary

Tūrehu are described in some Māori traditions as elusive otherworld people associated with forests, mountains, mist and distinctive music or sound. Accounts vary among iwi and through written transmission, and some texts place them near the semantic field of patupaiarehe without making the terms interchangeable. This lead matters for comparing fairy traditions through sound, landscape and social boundaries rather than through appearance alone. Contemporary scholarship may involve Māori music, oral history, literature and cultural revitalization. The researcher must determine whether a source is an ethnographic record, literary adaptation or community tradition.