THE MUSEUM'S TREASURES ARE PRESERVED TO THE MAORI PEOPLE FOREVER

Te Ao Hou, March 1959, Page 26

THE MUSEUM'S TREASURES ARE PRESERVED TO THE MAORI PEOPLE FOREVER What is so important about such a repository as the Maori Wing of the Gisborne Museum is that in placing their treasured heirlooms there for safe keeping the ownership need not be lost to the tribe, the family or the individual. They are placed there ‘on deposit’ and may be removed at will. Two of the many instances of this which have already highlighted the short history of the Maori Wing give fine example. In May of 1956 the elders of the Whangara marae entrusted to their Maori museum a highly prized relic which had stood for years on a concrete plinth in the centre of their marae. This was a piece of puriri, all that was left of a once huge tree trunk which was the timanga or food-storage place of the great East Coast chieftainess Hine Matioro. The story of this relic was told in an earlier issue of this journal. More recently the people of Whanau Apanui, at Te Kaha entrusted to the Museum a whaleboat which had figured in the later history of their people. On this occasion there was some difficulty in transporting the whaleboat to Gisborne and the Royal New Zealand Navy came to the rescue by making H.M.N.Z.S. Endeavour available to bring the relic down from Te Kaha to Gisborne. Before the erection of the new wing Maori owners of valuable relics had some hesitation in entrusting valuable heirlooms to a wooden building. This was kept clearly in mind in the planning of the new wing, which is not only built of concrete but which is fitted with a fireproof door. In addition the Art Society in its alterations to the main body provided a fireproof vault in which especially precious relics may be kept. In the few weeks since the opening of the new wing many Maori families have expressed their intention of entrusting to it mats, greenstone and other heirlooms of priceless value and ancient lineage. There is another, and possibly even more important function which will continue to be discharged by the Maori Wing, indeed increasingly so throughout the generations to come. This is the function of preserving the knowledge, the mataura-tanga which will justify the claim that such an institution will indeed be the whare wananga of

the Maori of the future. For here are collected, and preserved, classified and explained, all those artefacts which were once the everyday things of Maori usage and way of life. Here are collected and classified the adzes (both of greenstone and common stone), the fish-hooks, weapons, tattooing chisels, ornaments, weapons, agricultural implements, cloaks, canoes, anchors, carvings and innumerable other relics of a way of life that is no more. Already there is a research collection which future generations of Maori scholars will find invaluable in explaining to their generation the way of life of their remote ancestors. The founding of this Maori wing was a project noble in conception and impressive in its fruition. I hope that before very long a tablet will be placed in the building embodying the names of every member and associate member of the first Maori Committee of the Gisborne Museum so that Maori generations to come will know to whom they owe the preservation of so much of their racial heritage. An interesting display in the new Maori wing of the Gisborne Museum is this model of a popular method of felling trees. By looking at the model carefully, the student can see easily just how the ancient Maori, with dreadfully slow stone tools, managed to cut down even the largest trees, such as were needed for canoe building or meeting house ridge poles. The cutting tool is a large and heavy chisel-shaped stone, lashed to a long, stout shaft. This shaft is moved backward and forward over two horizontal timbers lashed to supporting posts. The three workers used this tool like a battering ram, first punching one horizontal groove, then another slightly higher up, after which the block of wood between the two grooves was chipped out. The remarkable thing about this way of cutting trees was the use of a bow behind the tree to help to add force to the thrust of the tool. The Maori did not use the bow as a weapon, but he did evidently understand the principle of the bow. (Gisborne Photo News)