COMING OF TURI

Patea Mail, Volume LIII, 31 July 1933, Page 4

COMING OF TURI

HISTORIC SCENE BEING DEPICTED. WANGANUI ARTISTS’ WORK. Two Wanganui artists are engaged on an interesting picture destined for the Ngatirunui tribe (West Coast of the North Island). It depicts the .arrival at Patea of Tnri, and the occupants of his canoe. The picture is to be handed over to the tribe at the unveiling of the memorial to Turi, the Maori navigator, at Patea on Wednesday. There are several unusual features connected with the picture. For the first time a Maori and a pakeha have worked together to reproduce an historical scene. . Goldie and other artists have painted Maori subjects, but no one has yet attempted a series of historical pictures as these artists, Messrs Hay-Campbell and Oliver Haddon, arc doing. The scene at the mouth of the Patea River has had to be reconstructed from geological survey maps, for masses of cliff have, fallen since 1350, ■■■ when the parly arrived after their long tramp from Kawhia, where the canoe was left. They, wore searching for a “high bluff” and river running toward the setting sun,” according to the sailing directions left by Kupe. In the background of the' painting is the high bluff on which Turi later built - his stronghold and the spring, which is there to this dhy—“Te Wai / o Turi.” In the foreground «is am artistic grouping of the voyagers, who have thrown down their heavy burdens. Turi, depicted as a man about 50, is there, and his wife, Eongorongo, holding the baby, Tutiwa-whanau- ' moana, born on the voyage. There are, too, his. two sons, Turanga-i-mua and Tongapotiki, and his daughter, Tancroa., also his brother Eewa. ; All the party arc wearing the tapa cloth' worn in the islands, • not. the piu- piu and fcathfer mats one is accustomed to associate with 'them, for they, had not yet used ' New Zealand materials.’The picture is historically 'correct and will be a valuable contribution to the art of the - Dominion.