MAORI ART.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19311, 16 May 1928, Page 5

MAORI ART.

REVIVAL IN NATIVE VILLAGES. [THE PEES 3 Special Service.] AUCKLAND, May 15. A striking account of the revival among the Maori people of interest in their national art was given by Mr George Graham at the annual meeting of the anthropological and Maori race section of the Auckland Institute. He suggested that this revival of interest might be attributed to the formation of the Board of Maori Arts. Mr Graham stated that there had recently been a greatly increased interest in art in Maori village communities, Maori architecture was being revived in places where it had long disappeared. He knew of at least six communal houses either prepared or in course of erection and there were many more projected. It was becoming a matter of pride with Native communities to see that their meeting houses were up to the traditions of ancient art. Committees were being appointed to supervise the erection of communal houses built and decorated according to these traditions. A spirit of rivalry was springing up and the movement was spreading aU over the country.