MAORI ART.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 145, 21 June 1934, Page 11

MAORI ART.

LECTURE AT THE MUSEUM.

WORK AT ROTORUA SCHOOL,

Preservation of ancient Maori workmanship for future generations is being ensured by the work at the Rotorua School of Maori Arts and Crafts. The director of the establishment, Mr. H. Hamilton, delivered an address at the Museum last evening describing the thoroughness of the valuable work they are undertaking. Mr. McKail Geddes, chairman of the anthropology and Maori race section of the Museum, presided. Some difficulty was inevitably experienced in trying to discover the motives which had inspired the ancient art of the Maori, said Air. Hamilton. Tohungas had always been reluctant to impart to others their secrets, and only the extraordinary development of the memory of the leaders of the race had permitted the survival for so many centuries of the traditions of both abstract and material artistry. The early pakeha settlers realised that certain of the arte were worthy ot survival, particularly wood craftsmanship, but the reticence of those who knew the work had made that object difficult of achievement.

Since the establishment of the Maori Arts and Crafts School at Rotorua, however, the Board of Maori Arts had ensured that tho craftsmen's secrets would survive. There was undoubted demand among the Maori people themselves for the, products of the school. It was pleasing to find that the present Government and the Carnegie Institute had both recognised in a practical manner the value of the work.

No definite signs of a revival in woodcarving had been noticeable, and it would probably never be known whether the arrival of the pakeha coincided with the culmination of that craft or whether it had been already on the wane, continued Mr. Hamilton. Unquestionably, however, the pakeha's advent had had a disturbing influence on wood work, but there was no doubt that an inlierent artistic sense still survived in the race.

"I can confidently assure you that the old law of tapu still exists in the Maori mind," said Mr. Hamilton. "There are many things iu wood-carving that one can do and many one cannot do." The lecturer illustrated the claim by relating instances of chisels which were tapu to all but certain workers. There was also a subtle distinction between the rough chips cut by the adze and the chips which fell from the carving chisels, so the latter were always burned in a special place.

Maori women could all do something, and there was no fear that that side of arts and crafts would ever die out. Mr. Hamilton suggested that the essentially utilitarian nature of the women's work was in itself an assurance that the working of such things as mats and articles of clothing would survive. The Maori Arts Board also hoped that native craftsmanship would become more and more incorporated in architecture and interior decoration in New Zealand.

The. speaker expressed appreciation for facilities for study provided at the Museum, which he considered an admirable centre for culture along those lines.