The Life and Work

Te Ao Hou, March 1964, Page 54

The Life and Work of the Maori Carver by T. Barrow Government Printer, 2/- This booklet was originally published as a School Bulletin for secondary schools, but it is also available in bookshops. Its price of 2/- makes it very good value. Dr Barrow, who is the ethnologist at the Dominion Museum in Wellington, distinguishes between four periods or phases of Maori culture: Archaic Maori or Moa-Hunter (9th Century—1350), Classic Maori or Fleet Maori (1350-1769). the period of first contact with Europeans (1769-1860), and the modern period. He describes the social conditions under which carvers worked during each of these phases, and relates these to the nature and quality of the carving characteristic of each phase. This is of much interest; for example, it brings out clearly how favourable for art were the first two phases, when carvings were essential for social and religious reasons, and when the status of the artist was high. It shows, too, how much harder it was to do good work after the Pakeha came, when carving no longer had the same religious significance and when there was so much less public interest and knowledge of art. Dr Barrow also deals with such topics as moko, the symbolism employed in carvings, the manaia, and the materials and techniques which carvers used. His illustrations include some photographs of late nineteenth century work, and also some pieces of sculpture from elsewhere in the Pacific; it is interesting to compare these with the old Maori work with which the booklet is mostly concerned. The photographs of old carvings include some very fine pieces, a number of which are in museums outside New Zealand. In several cases photographs of these have not previously been published.