ART OF THE MAORIS.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18113, 2 September 1930, Page 9

ART OF THE MAORIS.

BEAUTY 1 AND USEFULNESS. “Though Maori art has impressed observers from the .time that Mr Earle praised it in 1827, it has not yet been fully studied or satisfactorily analysed,” stated Dr. I. L. G. Sutherland, of Victoria .College, when addressing the Workers’ Educational Association at Wellington. “There are widely current assumptions concerning it which are certainly wrong.” “The Maori people and their culture present very complex problems to the ethnologist,” he continued, “and it cannot be claimed that they have yet been solved. - Their art can only be understood in relation to their life and culture as a whole, also the element of meaning conveyed in its various forms. It is a,mistaken view to suppose that the general style of Maori art is entirely confined lo New Zealand, and has been developed locally. 'The spiral form so freely used by native artists was not suggested by the curling young fern frond, but can be traced back in locality' and time through the Pacific, the Malay Archipelago, India, Persia and the Eastern Mediterranean, to Egypt. ‘.‘ln spite of its close relationship to Polynesian art, which is confined to straight lines and makes hardly any use of the human figure, Maori art is quite different, and uses both spiral and the human figure freely,, 'generally getting its best effect through their use. The ancestors of the Maori were na doubt acquainted with metals, and a stone implement of unusual shape found in New Zealand is allied to stone forms in south-eastern Asia, which were themselves copies of metal originals. Result of Environment. “The new environment in these islands led to certain changes in their mode of life, and these in turn gave new opportunities for the decorative artist. The cooler climate here necessitated more substantial houses, and much of the best Maori carving is associated with the decoration of their houses. This 'also included woven panels and elaborate and beautiful rafter patterns, and no doubt the abundance of fine hard woods found in this country would account in some measure for the remarkable development in wood-carving also.” Dr. Sutherland referred to the in-ter-tribal warfare of the natives. “Their regular summer pastime," which supplied a powerful motive in Maori life and work. v lt was not very destructive until the coming of the white man, and the ceremonies connected with it and with inter-tribal visiting ancl the exchange of valuable objects afforded great scope for the exercise of many types of Maori art. Throughout the hundreds of years that they were established here before the advent of the white man, the artistic impulses of the Maori people added beauty to usefulness, ancl there was scarcely an object which was not given its characteristic decoration. Even the bird-snares were beautifully and carefully carved, while the Maori decorated his house, his canoe, his weapons his domestic articles, his garments and himself! Sometimes usefulness was sacrificed, to decoration, and • this applied to such highly-valued objects as weapons.