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Story: Māori rock art – ngā toi ana

Augustus Hamilton photograph, 1890

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Augustus Hamilton photograph, 1890

This photograph shows rock drawings in a natural shelter at Maerewhenua, North Otago. It was taken around 1890 by Augustus Hamilton, then the registrar of the University of Otago. Hamilton was an enthusiastic self-taught ethnologist, and the first person to make a systematic photographic record of Māori rock art. 

Using this item

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Reference: MA_I062508

by Augustus Hamilton

Permission of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Brian Allingham, Māori rock art – ngā toi ana – European responses to rock art, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/45531/augustus-hamilton-photograph-1890 (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Brian Allingham, published 6 June 2014.