Hooks and Chisels

" Rei matua, hei taonga e mau noa ana ki te tane/wahine ranei.

Purehurehu, Wahapu o Otago
Fish-hook breast pendants (hei matau) are stylised fish hooks meant only for ornamental use.

Pahia and Haywards Point, Otago Peninsula

Pleasant River Mouth, North Otago.

I mahia nga whao, ahakoa te rahi, kia whaowhao i nga whakairo tino uaua

Chisels (flat blades) and gouges (curved blades) of all sizes and profiles were specially developed for the production of intricate woodcarving.

Whareakeake, Otago Heads."
Notes from Otago Museum exhibition display.

www.otagomuseum.govt.nz

The Art Of Bone

Hei Matau (fish hooks) in Bone

On Sale at the Cathedral Square Markets

Christchurch

May 2010. Ajr

Two by Two

Carvings

A Pair

At Rotorua

May 2009 Ajr

More from the Markets

Carved Heru

(Hair Combs)

In Bone

Cathedral Square Markets, Christchurch.

October 2009. Ajr

Meet the People - 23

Another in the Series Meet the People – Contemporary Maori Doing Ordinary and Extraordinary Things – Sandy Adsett (Ngati Kahungunu, Ngati Pahauwera), is one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary Maori artists. And as such he is adamant that Maori artists must work first and foremost for their own people. “A Maori has an obligation to the art of his/her people. It’s the people’s art. It doesn’t belong to you,” he has said. “It must identify Maori to Maori if it is going to remain relevant to statements about our tribal beliefs, values and mana (standing) in today’s and tomorrow’s world.” Born in Wairoa on the North Island’s East Coast in 1939, Sandy’s contribution to Maori art has been immense. Quite apart from his own broad art career as painter, carver, weaver, costume and stage designer (designing everything from postage stamps to full scale stage sets for the Royal New Zealand Ballet), he has been instrumental in furthering Maori Visual Arts within the New Zealand school curriculum.

Ever since he became an arts specialist for the Department of Education Advisory Service in the 1960s, helping to introduce the new ‘Maori Arts in Schools’ progamme, he has influenced generations of aspiring artists. In 1993 he was appointed a principal tutor at Tairawhiti Polytechnic in Gisborne; and in 2002 he settled in Hastings – the heart of his Kahungunu tribal roots – where he established the new School of Contemporary Maori Visual Arts, Toimairangi, Te Wananga o Aotearoa. He is a member of Te Atinga, the Committee of Contemporary Maori Visual Arts of Toi Maori Aotearoa and is on the board of Te Waka Toi, Creative New Zealand.
As an artist in his own right, Sandy has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand and in USA, Canada and Australia. His own works have been heavily inspired by traditional kowhaiwhai (rafter patterns in wharenui or meeting houses); and he has always maintained a balance between the contemporary and the traditional in the materials he has chosen to work with. This week (Oct 9, 10, 11), Sandy will be one of the participating artists in the biennial MAORI ART MARKet, which is being staged at Pataka and the Te Rauparaha Events Centre in Porirua, near Wellington. www.maoriarts.org.nz (All images courtesy of Toi Maori Aotearoa).

Above the Door

I took this close up of the ornate lintel carving above the door of the Whare Runanga at Waitangi National Reserve. The lintel carving design is adapted from one found in a Hauraki swamp. The carving above the window (only just visible) is a replica of a lintel carving from the Napier district; and the skirting board design reproduces a design formerly carved on bargeboards of important pataka (storehouses). This mixed nature of the derivation of carvings on the Whare Runanga is very much in keeping with the fact that it was built to represent not one tribe, but all the tribes of New Zealand. This concept from proposed by Sir Apirana Ngata, then (in 1934) the Minister of Maori Affairs, as the Maori people's contribution to celebrate the 1940 centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, which was signed at Waitangi in 1840. www.waitangi.net.nz

The Beauties of Bone

Heru = Comb

Partnered with Tiki

In Bone

At Ake Aotearoa, Taihape

www.akeaotearoa.co.nz

East Cape Carving

East Cape. May 2009. Ajr

I photographed these two beautiful carvings at the very pretty Maraenui Marae in Te Whanau-a-Apanui territory on East Cape. I took a side road down to the beach and there it was, tucked under a hill with a magnificent giant pohutukawa tree growing out front. I'll write more about this lovely spot tomorrow. Consider these handsome carvings a little introduction as I rush out the door to a meeting. www.apanui.co.nz

Pounamu Taonga

Queenstown. May 2009. Ajr

Last Tuesday I wrote a Meet the People piece about Invercargill-based carver, Nathan Jerry (scroll down to read that). His favourite carving medium is pounamu (greenstone or jade) and his works are usually based on traditional designs - as are his bindings, which are shown in good detail here. Nathan sells his work every weekend at the Queenstown Market and I must say it is a pleasure to come across such beautifully crafted pieces.

Meet the People - 17

Another in the Series Meet the People – Contemporary Maori Doing Ordinary and Extraordinary Things – Nathan Jerry (Tainui) is a long way from his Kawhia (Waikato) roots – he’s lived in Invercargill all his life and it’s there that he’s made a career for himself as a carver. Nathan, 38, was bundled up against the cold the day I found him at the Queenstown Saturday Market selling his wares. I had to talk him into a photograph but he talked freely about his passion for carving and especially for pounamu (jade). “I did my training in traditional wood carving in Invercargill and while I’ve carved in wood, bone, stone, shell, I prefer pounamu above anything else. It’s as if all my years of carving have led me to pounamu. I have a huge respect for it. It’s such a beautiful stone with incredible colour variation. Some pieces just carve themselves. It’s an awesome medium,” he says.

Nathan, who has been carving commercially for eight years, carved the Potuku Manawa (centre post) at Invercargill’s Murihiku Marae. He took those traditional skills with wood and applied them to pounamu. “I’m self taught when it comes to stone but after three and a half years of working with jade, I’ve found my niche.”

All images. Queenstown. May 2009 Ajr.

Nathan also works as a commercial paua diver in the cold southern oceans from Oamaru south, around Stewart Island and into Milford Sound. “I love pounamu and I love the ocean so it’s a happy marriage for me. Most of my designs are quite traditional and I work around several ocean themes – wave forms, whales, hei matau (fish hook).” He was also the lucky recipient of a gift of the sought-after pounamu called Tangiwai (actually Bowenite) – the rarest form of all from Milford Sound. It’s much lighter in colour and is now fully protected. “I was very lucky to know a man who collected it over 60 years ago and he gave me some to work with. It’s a privilege to be able to work with it.”

A`Swing of Souvenirs

Queenstown. May 2009. Ajr

Souvenir Bone and Pounamu

Dangling in a Queenstown Shop Window

Catching Shadows

A Small Composition of Carvings

Te Puia Carvings

Gathered Together

www.tepuia.com

New Marae, New Era

The New Marae Under Construction at Rapaki. March 2009. Ajr

Building is forging ahead on the new Rapaki Marae Development Project. I drove by the construction site a few days ago. The roof is on, the windows are about to go in and the actual building is due for completion by the end of May. Then it’s down to the business of interior decoration. Christchurch carvers, Fayne Robinson (Ngai Tahu) and Riki Manuel (Ngati Porou) are completing all the interior and exterior carvings; and Rapaki weaver, Doe Parata will oversee the weaving of tukutuku panels. The new marae replaces the old Te Wheke Hall and sits on a grassy knoll overlooking the sandy crescent and rocky foreshore of Rapaki Bay, over the Port Hills from Christchurch. The new development is due for completion in November 2009.

A Marae Dream Come True

When Te Tauraka Waka a Maui Marae was officially opened at Mahitahi (Bruce Bay) in South Westland on January 23, 2005, there were celebrations all round – and rightly so, for it was the first marae seen on the South Island’s West Coast for almost 140 years. Both West Coast hapu – Kati Waewae and Kati Mahaki ki Makaawhio – had lost their traditional marae with the onset of the gold rush; and it wasn’t until the Ngai Tahu claim in 1996 and a land exchange with the Department of Conservation in 2002, that a new marae became possible.
Inset pounamu (greenstone) in koru pattern
Painted rafters
But it’s been worth the wait and it’s a big improvement over their previous meeting place, the old Bruce Bay Community Hall. When I visited the marae in February I was amazed by the beauty of its whare tipuna (ancestral house), which boasts a magnificent collection of carvings – inside and out - created under the leadership of Canterbury-based Maori carver, Fayne Robinson (Kati Mahaki); and exquisite tukutuku panelling designed by Puhanga Tupaea (Kati Mahaki). The whole complex is nestled into a native bush backdrop just across the main highway from the pretty horseshoe sweep of Bruce Bay. And true to the runanga’s links to West Coast pounamu resources, the whare tipuna and many of the carvings feature exquisite pieces of pounamu, including the rare, soft blue pounamuu called Aotea, which is only found in two places in the world – in Chile and in the Makaawhio River. Samples of local pounamu have been inset into a traditional design in the forecourt of the whare tipuna, as shown in the centre photographs. The Nga Whakairo o Waho (outside carvings) in the lower photograph are, left: Rakaihautu and right: Hotumamoe. The carvings on the front of the house and inside the wharenui represent important tipuna (ancestors), landmarks and taonga (treasures) of the Kati Mahaki people. http://www.makaawhio.maori.nz/

The Business of Bone Carving

Bone Carving

@

Riccarton Rotary Market

Christchurch.

Based on the traditional Maori fish hook design