In this 1850s painting of Onehunga beach, Māori unload freight from canoes, load a bullock-drawn dray, and prepare to move off to market. Māori supplied much of Auckland’s food in the 1850s. Artist William Strutt described the scene in his journal as ‘animated with a fleet of canoes, just arrived with all sorts of produce for the Auckland market … beached to the lively song of the natives, their contents landed … the kits (native baskets) were shouldered, or strapped to the backs of the bearers, with the strong and handy slings, each generally as well carrying a huge cum cum or pumpkin, while not a few drove fat pigs tied by one leg’.
Using this item
Reference: G-637
by William Strutt
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.