Early East Coast Carving resembled Northern in many ways

Te Ao Hou, July 1958, Page 31

Early East Coast Carving resembled Northern in many ways It would be interesting to compare this Northern work with Bay of Plenty and East Coast specimens of the pre-European period and to see how much of the characteristics of the former may be found in the work of the East Coast School even of post-European times. To answer such questions we must first discover the limitations imposed by stone implements as evidenced by undoubted pre-steel carving and then consider the opportunities provided by steel tools for the elaboration and development of tendencies present in old time carving.

An inspection I made recently of Auckland Museum specimens suggested that the chevron pakati is less conspicuous in the Northern and Te Kaha carvings than in the Rotorua and East Coast carvings; that the half-moon details are more favoured in these old carvings; that the pitau spirals, the spirals decorating the shoulders and knees go with the chevron pakati in Rotorua and East Coast work of later date. My suggestion is that this great burst of ornamentation came after steel tools were introduced and when the art, which had died out in the North in the Age of Stone implements, had its scope only in the Bay of Plenty-East Coast area. I suggest a closer examination of carvings, old time and late in this area for features characteristic of the work of the Northern school which have lingered in the former. The Turanga House in the Dominion Museum, carved it is said circa 1842 by that great expert Raharuhi Rukupo and members of his hapu is well worth intensive study for evidence of these features, I find there:— (a) The peculiar head occurring on Northland lintels. (b) The Turanga house has interlocked spirals such as are found on lintels from Northland and Hauraki. (c) The Northern type of claw-like fingers are seen on many of the Turanga slabs although not on the epa. (d) Turanga has the ornamentation on epa figures and portion of side-wall slabs so common on the Northern burial chests. (e) Turanga has notched details instead of usual pakati. Except the elongated head with a high domed and undecorated forehead and with flat disc eyes, I think you will find most features of Northern carvings present or suggested in those of the Eastern school, though subdued or dominated by the elaboration of spirals and other ornamentation. I am arguing for a common centre somewhere between Whakatane and the East Coast—probably nearer the former than the latter (the Opotiki Carvings will have to be studied more closely) followed by a sharp diffusion northwards as well as extension through the parent territory—greater development in the latter because of the more stable One of the ‘epa’ of the meeting house ‘Te Hau Ki Turanga’ in the Dominion Museum. Note the peculiar head, claw-like features, notched details and other typical Northern features on this old carving. (National Publicity Studios Photograph)

Two Northern burial chest in the Auckland War Memorial Museum. (Photo, Peter Blanc)

conditions and the presence of superior artists and perhaps of more suitable Stone Tools—a suspension, then a summary ending of the art in the North, while it received a greater filip in the parent territory from the introduction of steel tools.