Exploring Maori Rock Art

I travelled down to Timaru and South Canterbury in February, to visit the new Te Ana Ngai Tahu Rock Art Centre. I've written about the centre itself previously (click on Te Ana Rock Art Centre in the label line below), so this time I'm focussing on one of the many South Canterbury rock art sites, that you can now tour through the Rock Art Centre.

This is a well known site on Craigmore Station at Maungati - that can only be accessed via the Te Ana tours.

The landscape is impressive - rolling green hills and craggy limestone outcrops as far as the eye can see.

We were taken to the location by Ngai Tahu Rock Art Trust curator, Amanda Symon, who spoke of the enigmas of rock art discovered so far, in over 500 South Island locations - 95% of them on private land. She led us down steep paths and into a large overhang, where rock drawings completed hundreds of years ago are still clearly visible.

On this particular site, some of the ancient drawings were 'enhanced' during the 1940s by well known artist, Theo Schoon. Schoon, born in Java to Dutch parents, emigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1939. During the late 1940s he began observing and cataloguing many of the South Island rock art sites and, in some cases, he drew over them to enhance them. Wherever he did this, he also left his signature. On Craigmore, that signature (above), is tucked around the corner from the main cavern - as hidden as the drawings themselves would once have been.

As well known as some of these sites now are, visiting them is still a special experience. Sitting there, in the deep and all-pervasive silence, it's hard not to wonder about the lives and times of the original Maori travellers who created these enigmatic marks and symbols on the limestone cave walls.

If you're in Timaru, the Te Ana Rock Art Centre is definitely worth visiting - and, if you have the time, take one of the tours for a first-hand look at these precious taonga.

http://www.teana.co.nz/

Maori Place Names - 97

Craigmore Valley

South Canterbury.

Feb. 2011, Ajr

To Dog Rock

It was a dull, overcast day in South Canterbury back in February, when I went visiting rock art sites with the team from Timaru's Te Ana Ngai Tahu Rock Art Centre. I'd been wanting to do this for years and as I wandered across the long, grassy slope in silence, lagging behind the others, I couldn't help imagining what the landscape might have looked like, 500-700 years ago, when Maori ancestors first came this way and sheltered under Dog Rock - so named for its snout-like appearance.

Bird-men, taniwha, insects, fish, waka, eagles and human figures float across limestone rock faces throughout Te Waipounamu (the South Island), especially in South Canterbury and North Otago. They've been there for hundreds of years and around 300 significant rock drawing sites dating back to at least the 16th century, lie within a 70km radius of Timaru.

It felt quite momentous to finally stand before them but I had mixed feelings. At first there was a flutter of disappointment that there were so few and that they seemed pale and barely recognisable; but after a few minutes of concentration, with Ngai Tahu Rock Art Trust curator, Amanda Symon showing us what to look for, the rocks came to life.

The Ngai Tahu Rock Art Trust was established in 2002 to support runanga and landowners in the care and management of the rock sites. Very little oral tradition about rock art has survived and the motivation of early peoples for creating them, has been a matter of debate for over 150 years. "We don't know much about the drawings - they're very enigmatic," says Amanda. "A lot of sites like this one, are well known so we decided to move away to lesser explored areas, checking every likely boulder, every outcrop from Kaikoura to Firodland."

That process has paid off with some exciting discoveries.

"It takes experience to recognise rock art," Amanda continues.

"Most people would walk right past it. But just a few months ago we discovered so figures on greywacke rock up the Ahuriri River, which we hadn't known about before. And close to here, at another known site, we also found a large face with a moko."
Few of the known sites are open to the public, and those that are, have been fenced off to prevent vandalism. But now that Te Ana is up and running, you can take a tour of two of the best sites with a Ngai Tahu guide.

www.teana.co.nz www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz

Maori Place Names - 39

I love the Weka Pass area. There's something mystical about the place that always fires my imagination. And not without good reason as it turns out. Located around 80 km north-west of Christchurch its home to magnificent limestone outcrops that imbue the landscape with an almost tangible power. The area is well known for its Maori Rock Art – which I have yet to explore. Maori are believed to have first explored the area over 1,000 years ago, in search of food. Birds were plentiful then. It is assumed the Maori camped overnight under the limestone overhangs and using charcoal and red ochre (haematite), also known as kokowai, they drew human figures, fish and dogs. There’s a walkway that provides access to the site in Weka Pass Reserve and there are known to be other rock art sites on private land. I believe the main site suffered good deal of vandalism at one point and now there’s a large fence between the public and the drawings.

Also in this region, you’ll find Pyramid Valley, which I drove through about a year ago – stunning countryside and again littered with massive limestone rocks and cliffs. On a different occasion, I was lucky enough to visit a huge farming property in this area, where I actually touched dinosaur fossils. The place was littered with them and there have been significant dinosaur skeleton finds there too. The area shot to fame in 1938 when two farmers, Joseph and Rob Hodgen, discovered large dinosaur bones when they were burying a dead horse in a swamp on their land. When archaeological research began in 1940, over 183 complete moa skeletons were discovered along with tens of thousands of bone fragments. It’s an area I must go back to - when summer finally arrives.

A Place of Significance

Castle Hill. August 2009. Ajr

I drove up to Castle Hill, between Porter's and Arthur's Passes last week. My Australian visitor was keen to go rock climbing and this is one of the favoured spots in Canterbury for that. I love it for an entirely different reason. The landscapes up here are majestic and ever-changing - a photographer's paradise. Castle Hill, or Kura Tawhiti is also of special significance to Maori. I've written about it here before so I won't repeat all the information. If you click on Castle Hill in the label line below you'll be able to read the piece I did about early Maori using the area as a natural shelter. It's now a Conservation Area and there are early Maori rock drawings in the area - if you kno0w where to look. It was raining when we were up there last week and the gigantic limestone rocks took on a spooky, almost animate quality - so different to the summer photographs of my previous post.

Rock Art

Auckland. April 2009. Ajr

I don't know anything about these rocks other than that they sit in the square at Britomart in Auckland. They've obviously been created as a contemporary representation of Maori rock drawings; and maybe they are part of the exhibition held there recently on the construction hoardings? Maybe someone can enlighten me? www.britomart.org

A Place of Significance

Castle Hill, Porter's Pass. Dec. 2008. Ajr

The hefty limestone outcrops of Kura Tawhiti (Castle Hill), near Porter’s Pass - between the Torlesse and Craigeburn Ranges in the Southern Alps - are among my favourite places. Towering, sculptural, with an almost animate quality to them, they were used as shelters by early Maori navigating their way across the South Island along a network of trails….. hunters and gatherers visiting the rich food and fibre sources of the Waimakariri River basin. Some of the outcrops still show evidence of early rock drawings said to have been made over 500 years ago by the Waitaha people, the first Maori travellers in the area – but you have to know where to look and what to look for. The limestone valley is of special spiritual, cutlural and historical significance to Ngai Tahu and the area was declared a topuni ( a protective cover), in 1998 as part of the givernment's Treaty of Waitangi Settlement with Ngai Tahu.

Meet the People - 8

Another in the Series Meet the People – Contemporary Maori Doing Ordinary and Extraordinary Things – Christchurch-based Maori artist, Rua Pick (Waitaha, Ngati Ruapekapeka) creates works “of the spirit, for the spirit – timeless stories of sky, land and sea.” Rua grew up in Northland in the Bay of Islands surrounded by Maori myths and legends, the ocean and living traditions. He always had an interest in mythology, whether it be Maori or Greek and his continued interest in the dramas and foibles of the human condition are now played out in oils on canvas. Selwyn Wilson, one of the country’s first Maori art teachers, was influential during his Bay of Islands High School years. Rua later moved to Christchurch (after a two-year stint in Raglan) to study for a year at Ilam School of Fine Arts at Canterbury University.

Now 40, he has been working fulltime as an artist since 2000 and when he’s not painting in his upstairs Toko Mata Studio and Gallery in inner city Christchurch, he’s out exploring the land, “getting a feel for the land where the early stories were set.” One of his favourite spots is the limestone valley of Castle Hill, near Porter’s Pass “considered in Waitaha myth to be Te Whare Kohanga or the sacred nest of the sandstone grandmother. He also visits South Island Maori rock drawing sites, which have been a continuing inspiration for many of his paintings. Rua has exhibited extensively in group and solo shows throughout New Zealand; he’s been a finalist in the Wallace Trust Awards numerous times; and a number of his works illustrated the book “Whispers of Waitaha – Traditions of a Nation.” He’s currently guest artist at a show at Nelson’s Suter Art Gallery (until April 26) and if you click on Rua Pick in the index line below, you’ll see some of the works in his studio stairwell. You’ll also find many more of his paintings on his website - www.ruapick.vc.net.nz

Art in a Studio Stairwell

Rua Pick's Studio, Christchurch. March 2009. Ajr

Christchurch-based Maori artist, Rua Pick has created a colourful approach to his upstairs studio, Toko Mata Gallery (The Visionary Post) in Lichfield Street. I took these photos when I was out walking last week – the lighter canvas is a homage to the ancient Waitaha rock drawings and paintings of the South Island; the bird form, based on the legendary eagle, is acrylic on canvas. Rua was brought up in the Bay of islands and settled in Christchurch in 1992, when he started studies at Ilam School of Fine Arts. He fell in love with the southern land and stayed. Rua is currently preparing for an exhibition of 24 works that will be exhibited at The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatu in Nelson from April 9 – 26. You can see a range of his paintings by clicking on to his website – www.ruapick.vc.net.nz www.thesuter.org.nz

Maori Tradition Meets Modern Technology

Aho Catalogue Images. Ajr

I always get excited when someone comes up with an exciting new – and totally unique - New Zealand product. So its three cheers for Ngai Tahu, the South Island’s largest Maori tribe and their development of their fabulous Aho brand, which has kicked off with a range of beautiful wool and possum fur shawls and scarves. What makes them all the more special is that they feature motifs by recognised Maori artist, Ross Hemera, based on the ancient Maori rock art drawings found in several locations around the South Island. (These sites are under the protection of the Ngai Tahu Maori Rock Art Trust). Combining the innovation of leading edge textile technology with ancient imagery and cultural values, this is a range to watch. www.ahocreations.com