This painting is by Dunedin artist Thomas Selby Cousins, who was commissioned by Julius Haast, director of the Canterbury Museum, to record the region's Māori rock art. It shows a group of Māori in front of a limestone shelter in the Weka Pass area of North Canterbury. Under the natural overhang of the shelter are drawings of several canoes and fish. A large proportion of Māori rock art was produced on limestone shelters like this one.
Using this item
Reference: G-391
by Thomas Selby Cousins
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.