Skip to main content
Browse the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWYZ
Graphic: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966.

Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.

MAORI ART – CULTURE AREAS

Contents


Other Areas

Not a great deal is known about the carving styles of the tribes of the southern part of the Wellington Province before the invasion of Te Rauparaha. Some sketches made by J. T. Stewart in the 1850s illustrate a few examples of the work of the Rangitane tribe of the Manawatu and Dannevirke districts, and a few small carved objects have been recovered from Lake Horowhenua in the Muaupoko tribal area. These resemble Wanganui work, the same wide-rooted lolling tongue being used, and in some few examples there is a similar rounded head. It is a great pity that not even a sketch survives of the carved house “Kupe”, built by the Muaupoko near Lake Horowhenua, although the house was still standing in the seventies.

The most important carvings from the South Island are two carved skull boxes (see Skinner, JPS, Vol. 45, p. 63), one from Banks Peninsula – now in the Canterbury Museum, and one complete specimen in the Otago Museum. There is also a canoe bailer from Monck's Cave, Sumner, now in the Canterbury Museum, which is carved in the same style as the skull boxes, and a number of smaller objects. The Canterbury Museum skull box has a full-faced head carved on the lid and one on each of the four sides. The piece in the Otago Museum has a full-faced head and a profile head. All six full-faced heads are of a wheku style but have a raised process running down the side of the face from the upper corner of the brow to the mouth. The eyes are rounded ellipses. One of the heads on the Canterbury example has spirals carved on the pegs in the centre of the eyes in exactly the same way as already encountered in Kahungunu carving from Gisborne. The mouths are wide, with from three to 11 largish teeth. In four of the heads the teeth are decorated with surface carving. The tongues are fairly wide and are hollowed in the centre. The Canterbury box is decorated with rauponga and pakura patterns. The pakati are balanced and deeply cut. There are two raumoa ridges. The type of pakura on the Canterbury box also occurs on the Otago box and on the Monck's cave bailer. The spirals interlock in the centre and, as already noted in Wanganui carving, the spaces between the connected spirals are filled with pakati instead of crescents, although some crescents are used.

by Jock Malcolm McEwen, LL.B., Secretary, Department of Maori Affairs, Wellington.

  • The Art Workmanship of the Maori in New Zealand, Hamilton, A. (1896)
  • The Life and Work of the Maori Wood Carver, Barrow, T. (1963)
  • The Coming of the Maori, Buck, P. H. (1958)
  • New Zealand, Hochstetter, F. von (1867)
  • Maori Houses and Food Stores, Phillipps, W. J. (1952)
  • Carved Maori Houses of the Western and Northern Areas of New Zealand, Phillipps, W. J. (1955)
  • Maori Rafter and Taniko Design, Phillipps, W. J. (1960)
  • Moko or Maori Tattooing, Robley, H. G. (1896)
  • Te Ika a Maui, Taylor, R. (1855)
  • Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 42 (1933), “The Evolution of Certain Maori Carving Patterns”, Archey, G.
  • Ibid., Vol. 45 (1936), “Maori Carving Patterns”, Archey, G.
  • Ibid., Vols. 41–45, 52, 56 (1932–47), “Maori Amulets in Bone, Stone and Shell”, Skinner, H. D.
  • Ibid., Vol. 45 (1936), “A Ngaitahu Carved Skull Box”, Skinner, H. D.
  • Ibid., Vol. 57 (1948), “Maori Spirals”, Phillipps, W. J.
  • New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology, Vol. 5 (1922–23), “The Occurrence of the Lizard in Maori Carving”, Best, E.
  • Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. 53 (1921), “Maori Decorative Art, No. 1, House Panels …”, Buck, P. H.