"COMING OF THE MAORI."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 190, 13 August 1934, Page 6

"COMING OF THE MAORI."

Some of the published criticisms of the historical painting "The Coming of the Maori" in the Auckland Art Gallery are justified on technical grounds, in particular the spiral carving in the canoe, figureheads, but the objection taken to a Maori figure pointing with outstretched hand to the- distant land seems rather trifling. Even if the belief about the ill omen of the pointed index finger prevailed in Polynesia many centuries ago—a matter on which no one can speak with certainty to-day —in the excitement of the moment that probably would be disregarded. The- objection to pointing in that manner referred no doubt more to persons than to things or places. There may be an association ■of ideas there with the Australian aboriginal witchcraft practice of pointing a bone at an enemy, although, of course, there is no racial affinity between Australian and Maori. But it would not matter how the canoe look-out pointed so long as he showed where the land lay. The condition of starvation depicted in the gallery picture has often been commented on by Maoris, who had their own ancestral canoes in mind. They have told me that they did not believe their forefathers arrived in such severe straits; they'would carry sufficient food for a long voyage. That might have been true e'nough of the Arawa and Tainui and their contemporary immigrant ships, but it is extremely likely that the first Polynesian crews to reach New Zealand were short of both food and water. The earliest craft to make landfall here was no doubt a driftaway canoe which found these islands by accident or stress of weather, possibly after food had given out. In one of, the traditional canoes, according to legend, slaves were taken for "fresh provisions," and vere killed and eaten a,s required. There would be no starvation in that ship. The later canoe crews would know the probable duration of the voyage and would provision their craft with food and drinking coconuts accordingly. But sea stock was apt to be spoiled or lost in bad weather, and shortage of food probably oecir ed in some vessels., The predominant curvilinear form of Maori carving and tattoo designs were not developed in Eastern Polynesia so far as can be judged by the drawings made by early European visitors to Taihiti and other islands, and we are left to conclude that they chiefly originated, and certainly were elaborated, in New Zealand within the last five or six centuries. Maori traditions support that view, and it is therefore reasonable to criticise the style of carving shown in this painting as not true to period. There arc resemblances to a certain extent between Maori artcraft patterns and those of some Pacific islands, but it was undoubtedly in this country, with its great abundance of suitable timbers, that the carver's art was brought to perfection and that the spiral in particular was introduced so freely in all forms of artistry. ■

The art of nioko especially was intenselydeveloped here. The rectilinear form of facetattoo that prevailed in such places as the Marquesas and the Tuamotu Islands up to recent times was no doubt the tattoo of the first Maoris to reach New Zealand. The straight lines and hands that crossed the face, some horizontal and some vertical, as described by Herman Melville in "Typee," were traditionally known to some of the Maoris as the "Moko-a-Tamatea." In 1903 I saw the last lingering relics of this ancient design at Moeraki, in the South Island. There were two old men, who had been tattooed in the fifties of last century. The oldest, a whitebeavd named Ira Herewini, had two blue lines running horizontally across his face from ear to ear; the other man had one line. Ira explained that this was the style of tattoo which Tamatea the explorer brought to New Zealand; his canoe was the Takitumu. Tamatea lived for a time on the south shore of Lake To Anau, and there was a tradition that he tattooed some of his young people there, after the patterns on his own face and body, and so introduced the art to the island. There may bo a note of interest in this for some of our young artists; at present there do not seem to be any ready or qualified to follow up the historical work'pioneered by Mr. Ooldie and the late Louis Steele and. Kennctt Watkins. — J.C.