MAORI ART

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21315, 7 November 1934, Page 20

MAORI ART

AN INTERESTING EXPONENT

PAINTER, CARVER, AND DESIGNER A strong tinge of romance colours ■the life of Mr Oriwa Tahupotiki Haddon, a Taranaki Maori who has come to live in Christchurch, for, so far as he knows, he is the only man in the world in his profession. Mr Haddon is an artist painting Maori life, and he is also a designer and carver. There are other Maori carvers in New Zealand, but it is believed that no one except Mr Haddon has yet interpreted Maori history and legend on canvas. Mr Haddon has come to Christchurch under engagement to Weston Bros., and Company, Ltd., fancy leather goods manufacturers and importers. He is now af Beath's, in one of whose windows there is a display of leatherwork bearing Maori designs. Telling his story yesterday, Mr Haddon explained that, in the old days, the Maoris had no medium for their art except carving. They did use two or three oils to make designs on the rafters of their buildings, but the colours were strictly limited and the practice could hardly be accounted an art. Carving was taken up by certain families and the art was handed down from generation to generation, so that excellence or otherwise in it became hereditary. His own aptitude for it, he said, was inherited. Missionaries' Suspicions When missionary zeal began to blaze the path of civilisation through New Zealand, the art of carving was practically at its height. But, through a misunderstanding by tho missionaries, there had been a danger that it would be extinguished. The missionaries thought that the heads that were very often the subject of the carving were idols, and they did their best to make the Maoris ecase creating them. The future of the art had for long been in jeopardy, bet now. thanks to the efforts of Sir Apirana Ngata, schools were established at Rotorua with capable instructors. Provided the right type of young men entered the schools —young men with hereditary ability—the art should flourish for some years yet. White people were taking a definite interest in the work. He knew that, because many had spoken to him appreciatively about it; but whether the interest was born of curiosity, of sentiment, or of an understanding and appreciation of the art, he confessed himself unable to say. Mr Haddon emphasised that the man who set out to interpret Maori life in £rt had a big task ahead. There was so much to learn, so much of legend, of custom, of history; but when these difficulties had been conquered the field was indeed a rich one. Language and Music Although the art of carving might survive a while yet, Mr Haddon was very apprehensive about tha future of the spoken word and of the music. Of course, he said, New Zealanders had never really known anything at any time about the music, but they were in danger of losing all connexion with it. It was popularly supposed that certain tunes sung to-day to lilting waltz rhythms were genuine Maori tunes, but they were not. The Maori songs were chants rather than tunes. Speaking of the language, Mr Haddon deplored the tendency among the young Maoris of to-day to abandon themselves to English. "Not ,only in language, but in so many things are our young people trying to copy Europeans that they are achieving nothing. The English language and English ways should be used as stepping stones to higher things. Maoris should not make them their beall and end-all." He added that he himself always thought in Maori. Mr Haddon has studied painting in New Zealand and abroad. He has spent some years in America. Besides designs on leatherwork, the display in Beath's window shows the method of painting rafters and the I names given to the various lines in j tattoo. I