Classic wood carvings

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 22

Classic wood carvings

The remaining five taonga from the Canterbury Museum which are on display in Te Maori are characteristically “classic” in style. All belong >to the later period of .the Maori occupation of New Zealand and some were made after the time of European arrival in this country.

Two of these items have a known history, while the remaining three, which will be described in the next article, are from the Oldman collection. All are North Island in origin. The canoe bailer, or titieru is one of a pair and is called Pororangi after an ancestor of the people of Akuaku, Poverty Bay, on the east coast of the North Island from whence the bailers originated. The Canterbury Museum acquired them from Augustus Hamilton in 1884; Hamilton figured one of them in his 1896 work on Maori art That it was a piece of some repute and tribal heirloom is indicated by the fact that it was given a name.

This tiheru is quite old (although much later in manufacture than that from Moncks Cave which will be discussed in a later

article). The carving may have been done withstone, or possibly with early soft metal tools, at the latest between 1800 and 1820. The handle terminates in a

highly stylised manaia, .a grotesque beaked figure, while the base is decorated with fullface human features which can be divided longitudinally into two

further manaia. The scoop has been broken at some time in the past and repaired by lashing the two portions together, and the whole

piece has been given a dusting of kokowhai or red ochre.

The other piece, which has been in the Canterbury Museum since early this century, is a carved “mask” or koruru from the gable peak of a meeting house. Its acquisition dates to the days when museum personnel went on "collecting” trips throughout New Zealand (and other countries as well) in an effort to acquire more material that would enhance the collections of their institution. Nowadays, riot only would such activities be frowned upon but it is considered desirable to keep all material, as far as possible, within the region where it originated. .

However, this was not the case in 1909 when the museum’s Director, Edgar Waite, wrote in his report to the board:

“In conjunction, with the taxidermist I spent the month of July in the North Island and obtained

a very fine and valuable collection of articles connected with the Maories, including... many choice slabs of carving... tekoteko, etc.” Among this collection was the koruru now on display in Te Maori. Carved flat faces such as this one were placed at the junction of the barge boards at the top of a meeting house and usually kept in place by a boss or knob at the back which was

pierced horizontally. They were often adorned with feathers and sometimes a full length figure, the tekoteko was placed above them. This koruru is described as coming from “Weiweka” (Waioeka) in the Bay of Plenty, but the name of the meeting house and tribe to which it originally belonged have not been recorded.