ART OF MAORI CARVING

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27679, 8 June 1955, Page 9

ART OF MAORI CARVING

EXPERT’S WORK ON LECTERN

MR I. T. TUARAU’S CAREER

Though the great traditions of Maori carving are being kept alive in the North Island, it is an art seldom seen executed in the South Island. For the last five weeks Mr I. T. Tuarau, of the staff of the Dominion Museum and a leading expert in Maori carving, has been quietly working at the Canterbury Museum cutting a traditional Maori design, symbolising beliefs of the Christian faith, into the parts of a totara lectern.

The lectern, when, completed, is for the chapel at Te Wai Pounamu College. Mr Tuarau feels that only the best of materials and craftsmanship should go into any work for a church or chapel. “I put my heart and soul into this carving and I felt inspired while I was doing it,” he said yesterday. The result, to the eye of an expert or layman, is a superb example of traditional Maori art. Mr Tuarau, who was born in the Cook Islands, is the only Polynesian to hold a position as a carver on the staff of a New Zealand museum. Though traditional designs in the Cook Islands are different from Maori traditional designs, Mr Tuarau has been handling an adze since boyhood. When a youth he was selected to accompany an official deputation of Cook Island chiefs to visit the North' Island of New Zealand to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, in 1934. Mr Tuarau’s carving was seen by Sir Apirana Ngata, who invited him to enter the School of Maori Arts in Rotorua. There, the young Cook Islander served a long apprenticeship in Maori carving and graduated with distinction.

Soon after his graduation, Mr Tuarau was chosen to tyke part in the renaissance of Maori carved houses, which Sir Apirana Ngata inspired in the late 1930*5. Mr Tuarau worked or many of the most famous of thes* carved houses, including the Sir Maui Pomare memorial house at Waitara, the Putiki church at Wanganui, the Sir James Carroll memorial house at Wairoa and the Treaty of Waitangi memorial house in the Bay of Islands. For the New Zealand centennial exhibition, held in Wellington in 1940, Mr Tuarau did much of the carving work in the Maori court

After returning from active service 111 Middle East during, the Second World War, Mr Tuarau was appointed to the staff of the Dominion Museum in Wellington. While in this position he has given notable service to other New Zealand museums, including the Canterbury Museum. He carved the model Maori war canoe, which was presented to the Queen for Prince Charles, during the Royal Tour of New Zealand. Later, at the request th ® Prime Minister (Mr Holland) Mr Tuarau made a second model canoe for exhibition at the Seamen’s Church Institute, New York, last year.

t ?® r T£ ar ? u ’ s lnl tlals (1.T.) stand for lo |ua Taringatai, but he has been called Charlie by so many for so long that he now signs this name on us cheques, he said. Though his assignment in Christchurch is not yet finished, Mr Tuarau had to return to Wellington last evening. He will come back later to put about 40 pieces of paua shell “eyes” into the human head motifs of the carved lectern.