SACRED CARVINGS OF WHAKATOHEA

Te Ao Hou, December 1957, Page 30

SACRED CARVINGS OF WHAKATOHEA Photographs: National Publicity Studios Many people have asked about the fine carving which appears on the front cover of Te Ao Hou. As the magazine has now come of age, with the appearance of issue 21, the time has come to reveal the secret. Until now we had been a little scared, we must admit. The pare is from an old and very sacred meeting house stored but never built at Waioeka, near Opotiki. We photographed it about six years ago, but we were warned about the deady tapu resting on that house. Several times people had tried to build it and instal the carvings, but each time it had collapsed. Because of the exceptional beauty of the work. Sir Apirana Ngata advised the people to get a pakeha to build the house as probably the tapu would not affect him. This was tried—we think about ten years ago—but the wind came and blew down the framework before much progress was made. We have heard of no further attempts. After we took the photographs it seemed as if a heavy cloud followed us about and for the rest of that tour, we did not take one successful photograph. We wondered whether it was perhaps the tapu of the carvings pursuing us and for long we would not tell anyone where the pare came from. The photographs on these pages show—we think for the first time—the beauty of these works of old Maori art.

Above are portions of the lintel, shown in full on the cover of the magazine. Below: carved head on the gable (koruru). Left and right: front and back ridgeposts.

A CHILD WAS BORN

Throughout the Christian world, men have sought to express the Nativity of Christ in forms of art. Naturally in imagining the divine event man will see Mother and Son as belonging to his own race. So it is appropriate that in several Maori churches there are now stained glass windows with Maori figures and designs showing the Christian Message. The windows shown were done by the Dutch artist Martin Roestenburg of Taihape for the Catholic Church at Tokaanu. The sculpture, n bohemian granite, stands outside the Taupo Catholic Church. It has a height of fourteen feet and is based on a portrait of the late Mamae Hemi Titiroi. Mr Roestenburg also did the Christmas Group for the chapel windows of the Presbyterian Maori Girls College at Marton.