MAORI HELP IN ARCHAEOLOGY

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31381, 29 May 1967, Page 9

MAORI HELP IN ARCHAEOLOGY

The growing co-operation of the Maori people with accredited archaeologists was praised by Dr. R. S. Duff, director of the Canterbury Museum, on his return from the New Zealand Archaeological Association conference at New Plymouth and a formal Maori welcome to delegates by the Atiawa community at Waitara. Dr. Duff said the welcome was given by Mr J. Nicholas, who was associated with the Canterbury Museum’s 1960 search for Maori carvings in the Waitara swamps. The Maori elders had granted permission for the search and removal of artifacts for safekeeping and display in the Taranaki Museum. “The fruits of this first Maori-pakeha co-operation in archaeology became apparent with the opening of the Taranaki Museum in 1961 when the Atiawa people handed over a magnificent canoe prow shaped with stone tools and found in a swamp within their rnarae,” said Dr. Duff. “To this the Ngati Mutunga people of Urenui added the mooring stone traditionally associated

with the Tokomaru canoe and the tribal adze, Poutamawhiria, associated with the same migration. “This new attitude of the Taranaki Maori people to archaeology in turn helped to influence the decision of the Murihiku Maori committee of Southland after the discovery on April 11 on an island in Lake Hauroko, Fiordland, of the cave burial of a Maori woman of rank seated upright and draped in a flax cloak of obsolete style. The tribal committee gave permission for detailed recording of the burial, provided the remains were not disturbed or removed and authorised the park board to instal a steel grill as proposed by our delegation.” Dr. Duff made a first visit to the cave on April 22 and with the assistance of the museum’s archaeologist, Mr M. Trotter, prepared a plan of the burial setting for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. He followed this up with a visit on May 1 and 2 to record further details of the cloak. By this time the grill was in position. It is proposed to defer further visits until the long days and better light of summer make investigation easier in the dim light of the cave.