Northland:

North Auckland has produced some of the most ancient types of carving that have survived. In the Kaitaia-Awanui district there is the famous Kaitaia lintel, found in a swamp, which appears to be much closer than most Maori work to Island Polynesian work. The lintel has the same general design as other Maori lintels in having a central full-faced figure and a terminal profile figure at each end. The central figure is very simple and lacks surface work. It is reminiscent of Austral Island work. A carved slab and a canoe prow discovered at Awanui have curious beaked figures somewhat related to the terminal figures on the Kaitaia lintel. The slab also has two figures, the heads of which have disappeared, and whose bodies and limbs are ornamented with thornlike projections. These few examples are of such interest that it is to be hoped that more will be found in the swamps and sandhills of the district. Other curiously archaic-looking carvings appear on bone chests from Hokianga. The figures differ from the characteristic northern work in having a full array of pointed teeth. From the Three Kings Islands comes a slab with a full-faced figure and a manaia, both strongly reminiscent of Taranaki work.

The most common style of North Auckland has figures with domed heads and curved, narrow bodies. The style may be analysed thus:

The head is pear shaped with a high, domed forehead. The eyes are small and the mouth is heart shaped. There are usually three or four teeth and the tongue is small and often does not protrude from the mouth. There is a narrow strip of surface carving on the brow ridges and round the mouth. The body is long, narrow, and sinuous. It is rounded in cross section and is usually plain. The arms are usually positioned with one up to the head and the other down to a hip or grasping one leg. The hands show a wide variation. There may be simply a curved strip, pointed at each end; there may be two fingers, two fingers and a thumb, three fingers, or three fingers and a thumb. The fingers are often long, thin, and artistically curved. The fingers often actually coincide with one of the brow ridges and the upper and lower jaw. Another inexplicable practice was to have one finger crossing one of the eyes. The feet may be a simple crescent, a foot with two curving toes, three toes, or a manaia head. Sometimes the foot is shown in semi-profile with three rudimentary toes.

In some feather boxes (waka-huia) there are figures conforming largely to the type described above, but lacking the domed forehead.

The northern manaia follows the same style as the full-faced figures, with or without the domed forehead. He is a very vigorous looking creature, often with the body curved like a letter “S”. Not uncommonly two manaia may be intricately joined together with the heads at opposite ends. On the beautiful northern canoe prow two manaia heads may be interlocked so that their mouths form a type of double spiral. The surface work on northern carvings is also highly characteristic. There are far more plain surfaces on the relief work than found in most areas. The rauponga pattern so predominant elsewhere is not nearly so important. The pakati are narrow and more like ridges than diamond shaped. Often there is only one ridge between two rows of pakati, and sometimes two. It is in the use of the flowing pakura pattern that the northern carvers excelled. Their style differed from others in having three, instead of two parallel ridges in the leading lines of the pakura pattern. The unaunahi pattern is beautifully exploited, particularly in decorating the long curving fingers. In this pattern the northern carvers used groups of three, four, or five parallel crescents and sometimes added another crescent curved in the opposite direction from the rest of the group.

Some of the most beautiful specimens of Maori art are the waka-huia, or feather boxes, carved in the northern style. They are generally rectangular in plan and not oval as is now usual. It is a great pity that this superb art died out in early post-European times. It is to be hoped that a revival of interest in carving in Northland during the past 20 years will lead to its re-establishment.

It should be mentioned that many of the carved buildings seen in North Auckland by the early Europeans were not the work of local carvers, but had been carved by experts from Thames and Rotorua. It is possible that the major carved house was never a feature of this area, but it is quite incorrect, as is sometimes said, that there were no carved houses. There are enough house slabs in existence, carved in true northern style, to disprove this statement.

Hauraki:

Our knowledge of the Hauraki style is limited to a few examples. These show a style related to the nearby northern style, but differing from it in several important respects. The full-faced figure has a low, rounded forehead and large eyes, but otherwise has a distinct family resemblance to northern figures. The brow ridges are narrow, there are usually four teeth, and the small tongue does not protrude. The body tends to curve in a lively posture. There is usually one hand on the chest and one on the hip, the fingers being long and narrow, with the thumb formed by a backward prolongation of the first finger. The feet are spatulate, with three rudimentary toes. The Hauraki manaia is vigorous, with a curving body, sometimes with a ridge running longitudinally, as in Taranaki. The manaia usually has one hand to the mouth, and in this case the hand is sometimes a deeply curved crescent which, with the mouth, forms a double spiral. The surface work is similar to that of the northern in the use of unaunahi and pakura, although in the latter there are only two parallel ridges in the leading lines of the pattern. As in northern examples, the surfaces of the body are not usually carved. The best examples of Hauraki work are two door lintels of similar design, one in the Auckland Museum and one in the Wanganui Museum. Though remarkably similar, they appear to be the work of different carvers. Both have a beautifully executed background of delicate open spirals.

Taranaki:

Although the art of carving died out in Taranaki very soon after European settlement, many genuine examples of traditional work have survived, since carvings were apparently hidden in swamps in the troubled times when the Waikato and Taranaki tribes were at war in the early nineteenth century. The swamps have preserved the wood in remarkably good condition until discovery in the present century. Almost every year some new treasure seems to emerge as swamps are drained. Most Taranaki carvings are either door lintels or slabs from storehouses, but there are a few other pieces, such as waka-huia and canoe carvings.

The Taranaki style is very close to that of North Auckland, especially in the shape of the body and the disposition of the limbs. The most striking characteristic of Taranaki figures is the forehead, which rises to a peak so like Mount Egmont that one wonders if the most dominant feature of the Taranaki landscape could not be overlooked even when a human figure was being carved.

The head, apart from the peaked forehead, has wide brows and large round, or occasionally elliptical, eyes. The mouth is wide and heart-shaped, but generally narrower across than are the brows. There are usually four teeth. The tongue is often absent altogether, or, if shown, is small. The body is sometimes squat, but is more often sinuously curved, with a ridge running longitudinally. The arms, as in northern work, are usually placed one to the mouth and the other grasping the leg, but here is the most astonishing feature of Taranaki design – the upper arm frequently enters the mouth through the cheek and then hangs down over the bottom jaw, the forearm looking much like a lolling tongue. The lower arm frequently passes under the leg and curves upwards again with the hand touching the body. The hands almost invariably have three fingers and no thumb. The legs usually curve beneath the body, with three-toed feet touching the body. Quite often only one leg is shown. The surface work consists of rauponga and unaunahi or pu-werewere. In the rauponga pattern the pakati tend to be broader than usual, rounded or diamond-shaped, and are separated by one, two, or three ridges. The unaunahi usually consist of groups of three or four ridges joined at the base in the approximate shape of a fleur-de-lis. A characteristic Taranaki treatment of this pattern is to have the unaunahi running across two grooves instead of one, as elsewhere. As in North Auckland, the body surfaces are usually left plain.

The Taranaki manaia has a rounded head, with or without the peak which appears above the brows in the full-faced figure. The eye is generally circular. The mouth is usually closed and shaped as a flattened circle, but some examples have the mouth open. There is one large tooth and normally a narrow, curved tongue. The body is sinuous and curved. One arm is usually looped through the mouth and the other hooked round one leg.

In composition the Taranaki artist lets his imagination run riot. Figures link up with other figures in the most extraordinary fashion. They link arms or legs, two heads may share the one body, necks may be intertwined, the leg of one figure may pass through the back of the head of another and reappear between the eye and the brow ridge, and so on. On door lintels the spaces between the figures are filled with open spirals or with a series of loops, called mata-kupenga, meaning the mesh of a net.