Meet the People - 10

Melanie Smith April 2009. Ajr

Another in the Series Meet the People – Contemporary Maori Doing Ordinary and Extraordinary Things – Kaikoura’s Melanie Smith (Tainui) is big on all things New Zealand and that passion is obvious in her cute Kaikoura store, Little Rock. Located right in the main street, it’s full to overflowing with an assortment of contemporary Maori product and some quirky reminders of the past, like those great little red plastic tomato sauce bottles that hark back to the fifties. Believe it or not, they’re her biggest seller and she buys them in lots of 200 to keep up with the demand. Coming a close second are the paua shells that Melanie and her partner, Matt Campbell buy off local divers and process in their own Kaikoura factory. As well as supplying Little Rock, they also wholesale the shells to a number of other local retailers, plus several further afield.

At Little Rock, Kaikoura. April 2009 Ajr
Melanie has lived in Kaikoura for twenty years. She shifted there to be with her grandmother - always been a big influence on her life – and she stayed. Prior to Little Rock she had her own interiors store across the street. But now she’s in her element promoting the best of New Zealand-made. “Kaikoura is a great place to be and I’ve seen a lot of changes here in twenty years – all for the better. I’m all for progress,” she says, as she wraps yet another red tomato sauce bottle for a happy customer.

More Matchitt

City to Sea Bridge, Wellington. April 2009 Ajr

Following on from Saturday’s images of Wellington’s City to Sea Bridge (scroll down), here are some close-ups of a number of the Para Matchitt sculptures that sit at the top of the bridge. “How We Got Here” is the theme of the gateway poles; and according to the nearby artist’s statement, “the celestial representations and symbols of love illustrate how our ancestors arrived in Aotearoa – as people are now arriving at the waterfront or crossing to the heart of the city.”

Market Pounamu

Pounamu

For Sale

@

Riccarton Rotary Market

Christchurch

A Meeting of Cultures

A Spanish Flamenco Guitarist

Busking

Beneath the Maori sculpture on Wellington's Waterfront

April 2009. Ajr

Buried History

Buried Village, Rotorua. 2007 Ajr

It was a warm, sunny, winter’s day in 2007 when I last visited the Buried Village in Rotorua. It’s a place that captured my imagination as a child and every time I return there, I still imagine the horror faced by the inhabitants of the village of Te Wairoa, when Mount Tarawera erupted in 1886. Today you can wander the park-like grounds beside the Te Wairoa Stream, wondering what it might have been like to be covered in ash, rock and boiling mud. The eruption buried three villages and around 150 people lost their lives. Te Wairoa was the only one that was excavated. There are a number of unearthed dwellings there – like this Maori tohunga’s whare (house) pictured above. Legend has it that the tohunga (high priest) is said to have predicted the disaster after the sighting of a phantom waka (war canoe) on Lake Tarawera in the days leading up to the explosion. www.buriedvillage.co.nz

City To Sea

City to Sea Bridge, Wellington. April 2009. Ajr

I don’t know how many times I’ve driven UNDER Wellington’s City to Sea Bridge but today, for the first time ever, I walked OVER it. I’ve always admired the glimpses I’ve had of Para Matchitt’s sculptures and now I can safely say, they’re even better up close. Matchitt, a Hawke’s Bay-based contemporary Maori artist, created the works in 1993. This is a detail of one of the wooden works. I’ll bring you the best of them here on Monday morning.

A Shelf Full of Souvenirs

Souvenir Carvings

Christchurch

March 2009. Ajr

Love For Sale

Picton April 2009 Ajr

Aroha

(Love)

On Sale in a Picton Store

Kete For Sale

Contemporary Kete

(baskets)

For Sale

In a City Design Store

A Swing of Pendants

Pounamu

Christchurch Arts Centre Market

Jan 2009 Ajr

Seaside Church

This is the cute-as-a-button Whare Karakia (church) at Rapaki Marae. A Maori mission was established here and in 1865 when the Methodist missionary, Te Koti Te Rato moved to Rapaki, the local community built this little church on the rise above the beach. It opened on May 4, 1869 with a multi-denominational service with hymns sung in both Maori and English. It’s still used today for occasional services.

Whare Karakia, Rapaki, Banks Peninsular. March 2009. Ajr
It’s a peaceful retreat tucked under giant trees and surrounded by a small cemetery. I sat awhile and thought about the photos of kaumatua hanging at the front of the church, wondering what their lives may have been like in 1869; and I admired the tukutuku panelling on the little altar and the shelves at the rear of the church, neatly stacked with old bibles.

Art Deco Maori

New Zealanders have always had a habit of doing things their way, so it should be no surprise to anyone that when inner city Napier was rebuilt in 1932 after the 1931 earthquake that claimed 258 lives, designers of the day incorporated Maori designs into some of the Art Deco buildings. Today Napier is lauded as one of the finest examples of mass Art Deco building in the world – and the only one that includes Maori design motifs.

All Photos: Napier Antiques Centre, 2008. Ajr

There are four buildings in the city that include Maori design and by far the most impressive is the ASB Bank building which has a stunningly beautiful interior ceiling that features stylised red, black and white Maori designs in an amazing kowhaiwhai pattern. A matching frieze runs around the tops of the walls. I don’t have a photograph of that – yet – but I intend getting one on my trip to Napier next month. The outside of the building also features koru and zig-zag designs similar to those used in Maori weaving. They symbolise waves and represent Raumano (the whale). This combination of elements resembles the ancient aukati (barring the way) design but equally represents pure Art Deco design. The whale motif is continued in the bronze grille over the windows. In the meantime, I can show you these photos that I took on last year’s Napier visit. They’re from the exterior of the Napier Antiques Centre and, as unimpressive as they are as photographs, they do give you an idea of the combination of Art Deco and Maori design elements.

Recognising a Maori Presence

Victoria Square, Central Christchurch. March 2009. Ajr

This is the painted totara pou (carved pole) carved by Christchurch’s Riki Manuel in 1994. It was commissioned by the Christchurch City Council in partnership with Nga Runanga ki Waitaha to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi at Akaroa. He poupou tohu ahi-ka o Ngai Tahu – A mark of the long burning fires of Ngai Tahu. It stands in Victoria Square in the centre of Christchurch, close to statues of Captain Cook and Queen Victoria and celebrates the presence of Maori in Canterbury.

More From the Food Files

2008 Ajr

Contemporary Kai

A Toheroa Taste Treat

Courtesy of Ngai Tahu chef, Jason Dell

Another dish prepared for Ngai Tahu's Te Karaka Magazine

Meet the People - 9

All Images Supplied by Maori Tours, Kaikoura.

Another in the Series Meet the People – Contemporary Maori Doing Ordinary and Extraordinary Things – Maurice Manawatu (Ngai Tahu, Ngati Kuri) is a man who cares deeply about his Maori culture. He is defined by it and he is passionate about giving visitors a deeper insight into how Maori have adapted to a modern world. Kaikoura is home to Maurice and his wife, Heather and their family and both were previously employed by the highly successful Whale Watch operation for thirteen years. They decided to set up their own tourism operation – Maori Tours - in 2001 to offer an authentic and personal Maori experience based around the Ngati Kuri people of Kaikoura. “We wanted to do it in a way that was real – a conversation-based, non-performance, behind-the-scenes look at what life is like for Maori, what struggles they face, what it is like for a pakeha to be married to a Maori. A lot of pakeha want to understand more about Maori traditions and Maori have an obligation to share that,” they say.

Their intimate ‘from the heart’ tour focuses on visits to ancient Maori pa sites, (there were once 14 fortified villages on the Kaikoura Peninsula), a look into Maori traditions and a bush walk to explore traditional use of trees and plants. Maurice and Heather begin by welcoming guests into their own home and Maurice tells the stories of his ancestors - stories that reinforce traditional and modern Maori life and the spiritual connections Maori have to their environment. He introduces his visitors to his favourite Kaikoura places; he gives them an introduction to weaving with harakeke (flax); he takes them on bush walks to explain the traditional uses of trees and plants as food and medicine; and in the end, he pulls out his guitar and encourages everyone to loosen up and sing along in true Maori fashion. It’s an encounter to remember and one that goes a long way towards breaking down cultural barriers. http://www.maoritours.co.nz/

Traditional Designs - 6

Traditional Maori Design Motifs

on

Market Hats

For others in this series click on Traditional Designs in the label line below this posting

The Subtleties of Maori Tourism

When most people think of Maori tourism they think of kapa haka groups and song and dance performances; but Maori tourism has become a lot more sophisticated and it’s often much more subtle than that. The song and dance performances have an important role to play but there are enormous opportunities for Maori culture to be incorporated in a more understated manner. One company doing just that is Ngai Tahu Tourism, which now owns a wide range of tourism businesses from boating experiences to iconic guided walks, hot pools and eco-tourism adventures. I think immediately of their Dart River Jet Safaris, which whisk you 37 kilometres into the remote reaches of the Dart River in the deep-south and into the World Heritage Area of Mt Aspiring National Park at the base of the Southern Alps – and area frequented by early Maori hunting for highly-prized pounamu (greenstone). It is in the jet boat commentary that you get introduced to the Maori component of the venture – a commentary that talks of the mystery of the long lost treasure remembered by old Maori and recorded by the first European explorers; tales that tell of a sacred pounamu location known as Te Koroka.

Both Images Supplied by Dart River Safaris, Queenstown.
Up-river at Puia, passengers are told of the small temporary Ngai Tahu settlements that dotted the area; and of Puia, the site of a significant early Ngai Tahu settlement, which was used as the first stopping point from Te Koroka, further upstream. Early Maori would raft the stone downstream in mokihi (small rafts made from reeds) and stop at Puia to break the pounamu into more manageable pieces, which they would carry over the alpine passing, wearing nothing but paraerae (sandals) and tahau taupa (shin protectors) woven from the tough leaves of ti kouka (cabbage tree) to ward off the spiky Taramea (Spaniard Grass); and feather cloaks for warmth. The inaka pounamu (pale greenstone) from this region is very distinctive and was the most highly valued of all. It was transported to coastal settlements and fashioned into tools, weapons and jewellery and traded throughout New Zealand.
Te Koroka was eventually overtaken by more accessible West Coast pounamu sites and knowledge of 'the great rock taniwha with a tongue of pounamu spilling from its mouth’ was relegated to legend, although the story was preserved in the oral traditions of Ngai Tahu. It wasn’t until 1970 when a hunter named Tom Trevor found a boulder that he took back to Queenstown, that Te Koroka was rediscovered. That discovery was not made public until 1976 and investigations showed little had changed in the area since Ngai Tahu’s early visits. Today the area is protected by a topuni – a Maori custom where a person of chiefly status extands their mana (power and authority) and protection over an area or person. Entry to the sacred site is by written permit only – and a Dart River Jet Safari into the general locale is probably about as close as most people are ever going to get to it. www.dartriver.co.nz

A Small Graphic Moment

A Small Paper Cut-Out Whare

From I SEE RED

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Christchurch Art Gallery 2008

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.

Maori - The Old and the New

Te Puia, Rotorua. 2007 Ajr

I was writing about Te Puia's weavers yesterday but it's also worth mentioning the stunning examples of traditional Maori buildings you'll find at Te Puia - one of Rotorua's major attractions. The whole place received a gorgeous NZ$20-million facelift in 2006-2007 and I happily spent about two hours walking around checking out the old (a replica of a traditional Maori village as shown above) and the new (modern in interactive touch-screen galleries that outline histores and legends). Te Puia is also home to the dramatic hissing and gushing of Pohutu Geyser, which erupts 10-25 times a day to up to 20-metres. www.tepuia.com

A Small Composition of Carvings

Te Puia Carvings

Gathered Together

www.tepuia.com

Maori Place Names - 6

Kaiapoi

North Canterbury

Weavers at Work

Te Puia, Rotorua. 2007 Ajr

I love watching Maori weavers at work. There's something quite mesmerising about watching their fingers fly as they deftly weave the strands of harakeke (flax) into often elaborate articles. I was in my element then, at Te Puia in Rotorua, when I visited during my last Frommers New Zealand trip in 2007. They are home to the marvellous New Zealand Maori Arts & Crafts Insitute, where you can watch art works being created in both the carving and the weaving schools. www.tepuia.com www.frommers.com

Inner City Marae

Rehua Marae, Christchurch. March 2009. Ajr

It’s easy to miss Rehua Marae in central Christchurch, tucked away as it is, between grand old homes and modern townhouse complexes in comfortable St Albans. I came upon it unexpectedly when I was out biking a few days ago, so I stopped for a quick look around and a photo of two. Rehua began life on the other side of town as a hostel in the 1950s, accommodating young Maori apprentices who came to Christchurch under the Maori Apprentices Trade Training Scheme at Christchurch Polytechnic. The hostel moved to Rehua’s current site in 1952 and by 1955 the Methodist Church and Ngai Tahu elders had begun planning for a wharenui there. The construction and carving of Te Whatu Manawa Maoritanga o Rehua began in 1957 and at the time it was the first carved wharenui to be built in the South Island for over one hundred years. It was opened in 1960 as a wharenui representative of all the tribes of New Zealand, with interior carvings and tukutuku panelling completed by different Ngai Tahu runanga – the 1200 square feet of tukutuku panels for instance, was made (from fibre from Arahura in Westland), by the women of Rapaki, Taumutu, Wairewa and Otautahi. Today the wharenui is nestled into a leafy corner of the greater Rehua complex beside a pretty flax-bordered stream. It plays host for important gatherings, hui, tangihanga, parties of school children, political meetings and assorted tourism and church functions.

Kotane Kete

Kete

@

Kotane Maori Village

Willowbank Wildlife Reserve

Christchurch

www.willowbank.co.nz www.kotane.co.nz

Plastic Maori

Jacob Scott, Karanga (foreground) and Nga Mahanga (behind), 2009. Courtesy of TheNewDowse
Jacob Scott, Karanga, 2009. Courtesy of TheNewDowse
I can’t wait to get to Lower Hutt in the North Island to see what promises to be one of the most exciting exhibitions of contemporary Maori art I’ve seen in a long time. Plastic Maori is now showing at TheNewDowse. Curated by Blumhardt Foundation/Creative New Zealand Curatorial Intern, Reuben Friend (of Pakeha and Ngati Maniapoto/Tainui descent), this colourful extravaganza is an exhibition of works by fourteen Maori artists, who have taken plastic and other synthetic materials and created thought-provoking works that explore the issue of cultural authenticity in contemporary Maori art. From the development of stone tools soon after their arrival in New Zealand hundreds of years ago, the Maori have never shied away from new technology and this exhibition continues that tradition as it looks into the appropriation, commodification and mass production of Maori taonga (treasures).

Says Reuben Friend: “Plastic Maori asks the viewer to consider what happens when synthetic materials replace the customary organic materials used in Maori art. Can a plastic hei tiki really be as valuable as a bone or greenstone hei tiki? Can laser cut sheets of Perspex replace carved wooden ancestral figures? Plastic Maori invites you to consider some of these issues and to observe how each of these artists has negotiated these matters in their art work.” The show includes vibrant and thought-provoking works like Gina Matchitt’s tukutuku panels made out of recycled computer keys; and resin tiki lollipops by Wayne Youle. Aroha Armstrong and Tawa Hunter of Rotorua’s Too Luscious, present resin jewellery based on customary Maori designs; and Christina Wirihana has used plexiglass, brass and plastic grip to weave korapa – the woven nets she used as a child to catch fresh water koura (crayfish). There’s much more – and you have plenty of time to get to Lower Hutt as the show runs to August 9, 2009. www.newdowse.org.nz
The work above – Michael Parekowhai, Pākāhā (the security guard), Kapa Haka Series (detail), 2003. Courtesy of TheNewDowse. "Pākāhā (brown) is one of 15 fibreglass sculptures from Parekowhai’s 2003 Kapa Haka series. These works were modelled after Parekowhai’s elder brother, who was working as a security guard at the time. Each sculpture is named after a colour and has that name written in te reo Maori on its security badge.”

Creative Kai

Eel Tacos, Wairewa. 2007. Ajr

It’s some time since we visited the Wairewa Runanga at Mako Marae at Little River near Christchurch to spend the day with chef Jason Dell (Ngai Tahu, Ngati Wheke) and runanga kaumatua, cooking and talking about tuna (eel) for one of Te Karaka magazine's kai features. There’s been a long tradition of tuna harvest at Wairewa; and there’s always been an element of mystery about the tuna migration and strict tikanga has surrounded tuna harvest. They have traditionally been caught between February and April during the last quarter of the moon (hinepouri) when the nights were darker and the eels had begun moving down the streams and into Lake Wairewa, ready to migrate out to sea to spawn in the Pacific. Local whanau adhered to strict rules – food, drink and smoking were all banned from the drains and stepping across drains was equally frowned upon. When it came to producing a modern eel meal, Jason managed to surprise most of the kaumatua that day - they’ve been brought up with baked or boiled eel – perhaps some curried eel, or smoked – but never anything quite as exotic as warm eel salad with watercress, Maori potatoes and bacon; and never anything as tasty as smoked eel in parmesan tacos with shredded lettuce and vanilla mayonnaise (pictured above). Their decision was unanimous though – “it was all delicious, a real treat” – and as they reached for the last of the eel and roast pumpkin butties, they promised to go home and try something new with their own tuna. If you want to read more about traditional methods of drying eel, you can read a piece I wrote last week by clicking here.

A Showcase of Maori Carving Talent

Carving

@

Te Puia

Rotorua

www.tepuia.com

School's In!

After School Lessons for Koukourarata Tamariki. Image Supplied by Koukourarata Runanga

Te Runanga o Koukourata, based at Port Levy on Banks Peninsular, have taken proactive steps to ensure that their young people are getting the educational help they need to enable them to map a path to a brighter future. They’ve funded an after-school programme of extra tuition for their tamariki (children), collecting them after school, driving them to the Kip McGrath Educational Centre in Christchurch and then returning them directly to their homes afterwards. The programme is now in its third year and those involved say the benefits have been numerous and the children have made significant gains in their learning. “We’ve been delighted with the results,” says Koukourarata project manager, Peter Ramsden (Ngai Tahu, Rangitane) pictured above (centre rear), with a group of the runanga children. “It’s been a real success story.”

Re-Creating the Old Ways

Image Supplied by Tamaki Maori Village, Rotorua.

The Tamaki Maori Village just outside Rotorua is a re-created village that presents Maori life as it used to be – complete with buildings, carving, weaving, singing, dance, moko (tattooing) and traditional welcomes. Night visitors are also treated to Maori kapa haka performances and a traditional hangi meal. This photograph shows a traditional pataka or storehouse to the left of the warrior performing a traditional challenge. www.maoriculture.co.nz