Rate My Professor Michael Reilly

Reilly's scholarship centers on Polynesian historical traditions, forms and content of oral traditions, and the roles of collectors of Polynesian traditions, encompassing both European figures like John White and William Wyatt Gill and indigenous scholars such as Mamae of Mangaia. Motivated by shared Pacific concepts of the past as 'ngā taonga tuku iho' (treasures passed down), his research explores historical texts from Mangaia in the Cook Islands and Aotearoa/New Zealand, alongside themes of ancient Polynesian leadership, emotions, narrative styles, and cultural landscapes, with particular attention to the histories of Mangaia, Māori chiefly families of Otago, and Ruapuke Island (Murihiku). Key publications include 'Minor elements of the Māui story in Aotearoa and Te Waipounamu and their cultural connections to wider Polynesia' (Journal of the Polynesian Society, 2024), 'Māui, Polynesian culture hero: A nineteenth century tradition from Ruapuke Island' (Journal of New Zealand Studies, 2023), 'Manuscript XXXIX: Mamae of Mangaia: Nineteenth century pastor and tribal historian' (Journal of Pacific History, 2022), 'Emotions in the Pacific' in The Routledge History of Emotions in the Modern World (2022), and 'Talking traditions: Orality, ecology, and spirituality in Mangaia's textual culture' in Indigenous Textual Cultures (2020).