MAORI CARVINGS

Evening Star, Issue 25620, 22 October 1945, Page 8

MAORI CARVINGS

DISPLAY AT OTAGO MUSEUM ANCIENT PATAKA FRAGMENT The rearrangement of one section of the rich collection of Maori carvings housed 'in the Chapman .gallery of the Otago Museum is now almost completed. The carvings involved are those used to decorate the village communal house, the. whare-puni, and the storehouse on piles, the pataka. Among the collection is a lavishlycarved doorway, with lintel and jambs. There is also a single elaborately-carved and massive door jamb. The lintel is carved with a complex series of designs, the most conspicuous motif being a central human figure with hands clasped on the abdomen. There are three other lintels, of which the smallest and most interesting is cut with steel tools. This again shows the central figure, with snake-like forms disposed on either side, and two flanking humanised figures facing outwards. The marks of stone chisels are evident on the plainer surfaces, suggesting that the carving lias been recut on the arrival of steel implements. The second item is a vigorous piece of carving taken from a house in Southern Hawke’s Bay. The carving possibly belongs to the school centred on Wairoa, and the work, which has been done with steel tools, probably dates from the late 1850’s. The third lintel, although later, is still of considerable interest. It includes a central figure and four flanking figures, with four composite birds supporting them. The pataka carvings are more fragmentary. They include good examples of typical Arawa work' probably carved in the 1860’s, but there are earlier pieces from the same district carved with stone tools. One of these, a fragment obtained by excavation at Orararangi, near Thames, is believed to be the most ancient pataka carving in existence.