Maori art to be exhibited in United States

Tu Tangata, Issue 14, 1 October 1983, Page 35

Maori art to be exhibited in United States

The largest single exhibition of Maori art ever to be displayed outside of New Zealand will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in September 1984. Accompanying the exhibition of around 200 works will be a large group of kaumatua. The exhibition sculptures in wood, stone, bone, ivory and shell which date from about 1000 AD to 1880, have been selected for the exhibition by New Zealand curators David Simmons, chief ethnologist at the Auckland Institute

and Museum and Sidney Mead, Professor of Maori Studies, Victoria University in association with Douglas Newton, chairman, Department of Primitive Art at the Metropolitan Museum. With major funding from Mobil, the exhibition has been organised by the American Federation of Arts. Maori Affairs Secretary, Kara Puketapu says, ‘‘For over 1,000 years the Maori people have almost without exception refused to consent to their art work being taken from New Zea-

land and displayed in public. The reasons have deep cultural significance and are related very much to the fact that classical works are considered to be ‘living’ treasures....” The proposed itinerary for the exhibition is: September 10, 1984 January 6, 1985, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. February 22 May 28, 1985, St Louis Art Museum, St Louis. July 6 December 1, 1985, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum of the Fine Arts, Museums of San Francisco, California.

Uenuku, a sacred carving of the Tainui people, is to go on show in the U.S.

The tall, striking carving will leave its home at the Te Awamutu Museum, where it stands awesome and proud under artificial lights, to go on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum in September next year.

Te Awamutu director Jim Mandeno said the 2.5 m carving was kept in the custody of the Te Awamutu Historical Society.

The society had given permission for the carving to be taken overseas after first speaking with Maori Queen Dame Te Atairangikaahu and several elders.

He said Uenuku was found by a Te Awamutu farmer Mr R.W. Bourne at the bottom of Lake Ngaroto in 1906.

It was said to have been brought to New Zealand from Hawaiiki in the Tainui canoe and was used as the repository for a stone believed to have held the spirit of Maori god Uenuku.

Mr Mandeno described Uenuku as the rainbow god, god of war, and provider, and said the four spikes at the top of it marked the four major colours of the rainbow.

The only time Uenuku had left the Waikato since its discovery was when it was lent to the Wanganiui museum. It was returned to Te Awamutu in 1958, he said.

Now it will leave for two years to take part in the exhibition, which was being put on by the Maori Affairs Department, the American Federation of Arts, and the Mobil Corporation. It will also be exhibited at St Louis and San Francisco.