Maori door lintel put on display at museum

Press, 30 August 1978, Page 3

Maori door lintel put on display at museum

An $Bl,OOO masterpiece of Maori carving was put on display at the Canterbury Museum yesterday after an informal ceremony. The carving is a door lintel bought at a London auction at the end of June. It was carved with primitive stone tools in the early 1800 s at Te Kaha, in the eastern Bay of Plenty. Sir Norman Perry, representing the tribes of the eastern Bay of Plenty, presented the lintel- to the museum. He said that it was not just a masterpiece of Maoritanga: “It is a treasure which we believe will be an inspiration to the present generation. “Are you going to be worthy of your ancestors who carved this with primitive tools?” asked Sir Norman. He said that some North Island people wondered why Canterbury Museum should look after a lintel carved in the North Island. Part of the answer was

that he and Dr R. S. Duff, < director of the Canterbury ; Museum, went to the same Canterbury school, said Sir 1 Norman. I Another explanation was that there had been a recent migration of Maori people from the North Island to the South Island. i Dr Duff told the public : that the lintel was taken from Te Kaha, near Opotoki, ; probably by seamen, 20 to 40 years before the Treaty ; of Waitangi of 1840. It was a very old example of Maori carving produced < with stone tools in the “golden age’’ of Maori car- i ving, just before the advent i

of soft metal tools of copper and bronze. About 99 out of 100 of such masterpieces were taken out of New Zealand by seamen, he said. Dr Duff said the lintel had been in the hands of a Devonshire family for 150 years or more and “surfaced” at a vicar’s “bring and buy” appeal. It was bought by a millionaire’s agent and came up for auction this year when the millionaire had to sell part of his collection to pay a ransom for his kidnapped daughter. Dr Duff had also assured the Bay of Plenty people that their carvers could

make a replica of the lintel for display in the North Island, said Sir Norman. The ceremonial welcome, or powhiri, was performed by members of Te Wahi Pounamu cultural club, led by Mrs M. Jones, of Christchurch, who is a member of the Te Whanau-a-Apanui tribe of Te Kaha.

Tapu was lifted by the Rev. Wati Tahere, a Maori Methodist Mission minister in Christchurch, who also helped to unveil the lintel with the senior elder of the Ngai Tahu tribe of Christchurch, Mr Riki Ellison. Mr Ellison said that the lintel was not just for decoration. It had significance for a tribe as an identification or emblem, and each tribe had its own distinctive lintel.

Of the $Bl,OOO, the Government has contributed $50,000, the Canterbury Museum Trust Board $14,000, the friends of the Museum $2OOO, a Dunedin family $lBOO, and a trust board appeal fund $5OOO. The balance of $B2OO has to be raised before the end of the year.