Touchstones

Images Supplied by NZ Rox.

Birdlings Flat Beach, about 35 minutes from Christchurch on the way to Akaroa, is a place many locals love. It’s wild, untamed, weather-beaten and filled with the most amazing flat greywacke stones that I (for one) love to collect. The beach is famous for its fishing, its dangerous currents, its quirky seaside cottages and its sea-tumbled agates, amethysts and other semi-precious stones. But it was the simple greywacke pebbles that inspired the team at Continuum to create NZ Rox, a series of fabulous wearable Touchstones ‘carved’ with classic New Zealand Maori-inspired designs. They’ve been a roaring success and they’re universally appealing. Even better, the purchase of every NZ Rox item helps fund the protection of Te Roto 0 Wairewa (lake Forsyth) in partnership with the Wairewa Runanga, who are the kaitiaki (guardians) of the lake – one of only two customary lakes in New Zealand. www.NZrox.com

Waihao Whitebaiters

The Box, Waihao River Mouth, Waimate, South Island. Nov. 2008. Ajr

I was transfixed the day I visited The Box at the Waihao River mouth just south of Waimate to see whitebaiters from the local Maori community at work. The seas were a bubbling, boiling mass of foam, the sudden waves unpredictable and dangerous; yet the whitebaiters waded in at just the right moment - a trick born of experience no doubt - and scooped their nets to catch those little silver slithers of fish most New Zealanders are willing to pay huge money for. The folks at the Waihao Marae are spoiled for choice when it comes to their favourite kaimoana (seafood). The area has long been a food basket for the local people and they still harvest tuna (eel), patiki (flounder, cod, whitebait and many other fish species.

The Best Little Small Museum Ever!

Pataka or Storehouse (for food)

Meeting House, Okains Bay Maori & Colonial Museum, Banks Peninsular. 2008 Ajr

If you go down to the bay today, you’re in for a big surprise…..Okains Bay Maori & Colonial Museum is a thing of beauty and wonder – one man’s passion for collecting taken to extremes. Murray Thacker is the man behind it all. When his collection bulged out of his home garage, he bought the old cheese factory building (in 1968) and set up the astonishing array of exhibits he had collected over many decades. In 1977 it was made a public museum and today it gets around 6,000 visitors a year – which is quite remarkable in itself when you consider how ‘off the beaten track’ Okains Bay is. I spent ages here, totally captivated by the gathered histories of Maori and Pakeha alike. The Maori meeting house shown above (interior and exterior) was built observing all Maori traditions, using original materials from other meeting houses. Most of the carving was done by well known master carver, John Rua. The main Maori artefact museum houses many treasures, including a sacred god stick dating back to 1400, a war canoe from 1867 and a valuable Akaroa hei tiki recovered in England and brought back to Okains Bay by the museum’s founder. An amazing treasure trove well worth the effort of getting there.

Te Huringa / Turning Points

All Images Courtesy of the Fletcher Trust Collection. Captions below.

If you’re in Christchurch before February 15th make sure you get to Christchurch Art Gallery to see the very beautiful exhibition “Te Huringa / Turning Points,” Pakeha Colonisation and Maori Empowerment – an exhibition of paintings from the collections of The Fletcher Trust and Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare O Rehua Whanganui. It’s a big show that includes works by some of New Zealand’s best known artists – both Maori and Pakeha - and the diversity of style and medium represented in “the journey from early European contact, settlement and colonisation through to contemporary perspectives by 20th and 21st century artists” makes for rivetting viewing. There’s something very serene about the whole space. Adding to the multi-layered perspectives is the fact that the show took a bicultural curatorial approach. Dr Jo Diamond is of Ngapuhi Maori descent and is currently lecturer in Maori Art History at the University of Canterbury; and Peter Shaw has been curator of The Fletcher Trust Collection since 1991. Their combined approach to the exhibition catalogue presents a gentle ‘unravelling’ of the spiritual aspects of many of the works by Diamond set against Shaw’s gathering of biographical and historical facts. It’s a nice touch and one I’m sure viewers will appreciate. If you miss the show in Christchurch, it opens at Dunedin Public Art Gallery on March 13 and runs through to July.

Works shown above are all Courtesy of the Fletcher Trust Collection and are: Top: Major-General Sir Horatio Gordon Robley, Tomika Te Mutu, 1866, Watercolour; Centre: John Tole, Maori Village, Rotorua, C.1950, Oil on Board; Bottom: Thomas Allom, Mt Egmont from the North Shore of Cook Straight, New Zealand, natives burning off wood for Potato Grounds, 1841, Watercolour.
www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz www.sarjeant.org.nz www.fletchercollection.co.nz www.dunedin.art.museum

Gallery Pounamu

Pounamu. Christchurch Art Gallery. Feb 2009 Ajr

If you go into Christchurch Art Gallery any time, you’ll notice a massive lump of pounamu (jade) at the rear of the ground floor. According to the plaque beside it, these are its origins: “It is from the takiwa (territory) of Ngati Waewae on the West Coast of Te Waipounamu (South Island) and was found in the Turiwhati (Griffin Range) area by Pierre Tumahai and Wereta Tainui Jnr. The pounamu was a koha (gift) to the gallery from Te Runanga (council) o Ngati Waewae and Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu to Christchurch Art Gallery at the gallery’s opening on May 10, 2003. Te Puna o Waiwhetu and Ngati Waewae is one of the Maori councils that has kaitiakitanga (guardianship) responsibilities for pounamu. As the gallery’s mauri stone, the principles of kaitiakitanga (guardianship), tino rangatiratanga (domain), manaakitanga (respect) and whakawhanaungatanga (kinship) as applied by Te Runanga o Ngati Waewae and Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu are encapsulated within the spirit of this pounamu.” www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz

Kete in a Corner

Woven Kete

(baskets)

On Display

Rotorua 2007. Ajr

Meet the People - 1

Toni Huata, Waitangi Day Celebrations Christchurch Art Gallery. Feb 6 Ajr

The first in my new series Meet the People – Contemporary Maori Doing Ordinary and Extraordinary Things - Wellington-based Maori songwriter and vocalist, Toni Huata (Ngati Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata) has blazed a successful trail through the music world at concert and festival performances nationally and internationally. Armed with a music degree from Whitireia Polytechnic in Porirua, Wellington, she became a member of Te Rakau Hua O Te Wao Tapu touring theatre company headed by Jim Moriarty in 1995. She’s since toured throughout USA, Europe, Asia and the Pacific; she’s performed with the Neville Brothers in USA; and she was the first Maori to ever perform at the world renowned jazz club, Ronnie Scotts in London. Brought up in the Hawke’s Bay, Toni attended the famous Turakina Maori Girls’ College and says she was always surrounded by an eclectic array of influences – the Anglican Church choir, tap dancing and Maori cultural performance. Her debut album “Te Maori e” released in 2001, is a reflection of that. A fusion of jazz, jungle, flamenco, classical, dub poi and traditional waiata, it is dedicated to her grandparents, the late Te Okanga Kahutapere (Aussie) Huata and Ngaro Rangi-Huata. The theme for the album was built around the song “Te Maori e,” composed by her grandfather for the Te Maori exhibition in 1986.

Toni Huata @ PAO Wellington. Photo Supplied by Toni Huata

Toni Huata at Parihaka. Image by Kiritahi Takiari. Supplied by Toni Huata.

Recognised as an accomplished singer/songwriter, dancer, voice expert, actor and an inspirational ambassador of Maori Language, Toni also has her own entertainment business, WaaHuu Creations that provides production services and tuition in theatre, music and dance with the aim of enhancing the exposure of Maori in performing arts, language and culture. Toni’s music reflects her deep spiritual roots – a result of being raised within the traditions of Maori culture, song and her whakapapa (geneology). She confidently blends both Maori and non-Maori worlds and in drawing on the past she hopes to pave the way to new sounds of the future. “Werohia – Challenge yourself,” she says. “Pass the limits…grasp an idea and enter into it.” Toni’s second album, “Mauri To – Everlasting Force” was released in 2004. www.tonihuata.com

Island Sanctuary

Mokoia Island. Aerial View. Image supplied by Wai Ora Group

Lake Rotorua’s Mokoia Island is a private tribal island owned and governed by four local hapu (tribes) of Ngati Whakaue, Ngati Uenukukopako, Ngati Rangiwewehi and Ngati Rangiteaorere. It has held a prominent place in Maori cultural history and its fertile soils saw early Te Arawa people using it to grow food crops – especially the kumara (sweet potato). Today it provides an excellent example of partnership conservation -the island’s restoration and protection is headed by the Mokoia Island Trust Board while the Department of Conservation provides technical advice and practical support; and DOC in conjunction with Mokoia Island Wai Ora Experiences carry out a quarantine check of all guests visiting the island, in order to protect the breeding programme of several of New Zealand’s most precious native birds.

Guided Mokoia Island Tour. Image Supplied by Wai Ora Group

Top: Tieke or Saddleback. Bottom: Kakako. Images supplied by Wai Ora Group.
Access to Mokoia Island is strictly limited to permitted operators only - the team at Mokoia Island Wai Ora Experiences for instance. They run a number of fascinating tours that give visitors an insight into this beautiful, mysterious place. I particularly like the sound of their Birds of Mokoia tours. Mokoia is New Zealand’s only inland island bird sanctuary and it has New Zealand’s largest population of Tieke (Saddleback), a bird that takes its English name from the band of colour running across the adult bird’s back. According to Maori tradition, the saddle marking was caused by the man-god Maui when he scorched the feathers of the bird after capturing the sun. In addition you’ll see tui, weka, toutouwai (North Island Robin), kokako and kiwi. (Like the extinct Huia, the kokako and tieke are part of the Wattlebird family and are found nowhere else in the world). www.mokoiaisland.com www.tearawa.iwi.nz

Bouncy Marae

"Bouncy Marae" by Inez Crawford, Christchurch Art Gallery, 2008. Ajr

I love it when contemporary art moves away from the traditional confines of an art gallery and ‘merges’ with everyday life. It goes a long way to breaking down barriers, to making serious art much more accessible to people who would not otherwise bother. This work – “Bouncy Marae,” by Inez Crawford – shown at the Christchurch Art Gallery in 2008 - is a classic example. I sat on the stairs there when it was showing and watched a whole bunch of kids tearing off their shoes so they could leap about inside the ‘sculpture.’ That was the aim of things – to let kids get inside and have fun. It’ was made of PVC and is filled with air, creating an inflatible trampoline like ‘environment.’ Crawford was inspired by her childhood impression that her local marae was a fairytale castle. This ‘bouncy wharenui is chocolate brown on the outside and hot pink on the inside. And didn’t I time it well….just in time to catch a young girl in a hot pink outfit playing inside. www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz

Herbs Headliner

Show Posters, Manchester Street, Christchurch. Feb 2009. Ajr

New Zealand’s legendary Reggae group, Herbs Unplugged headlined at the Iva-Pacific Arts Festival in Christchurch during Waitangi weekend. Four of the group’s original members – Dilworth Karaka, Tama Loudon, Mori Watene and Thom Nepia – wowed the crowds with some of their greatest hits from their 30-year music career. The group have produced a stream of hits since 1979, winning Best Album and Songwriters at the 1987 NZ Music Awards; and, partnered with Dave Dobbyn on that iconic New Zealand hit “Slice of Heaven” in 1986, they shot to number one on both the New Zealand and Australian charts. They’ve also worked along side big names like UB40, Tina Turner, Neil Young and Stevie Wonder. Their music has always been a success blend of Reggae and South Pacific and Maori influences.

Kaikoura Delicacy

Crayfish stalls, Kaikoura. 2007. Ajr

Mention the word crayfish and most people start licking their lips. Crayfish, more precisely the salty spiny lobster (koura to Maori), is a delicacy that few can go past – and in and around Kaikoura, you don’t have to. You can stop at any one of a number of roadside caravans and ‘stalls’ to get your fill. Kaikoura in fact, is named for this particular taste treat – kai (food) koura (crayfish) – and the local Maori have always treasured it as part of their kaimoana (seafood) diet. A couple of years ago when I was interviewing the Kaikoura kaumatua (elders) about their childhood memories of crayfish hunting they told me that “times have changed from the days when koura were caught in abundance here.” They talked about how koura are not as plentiful as they used to be and about how they now use metal pots to harvest them. Yet even just a few decades back you could still see the cray pots that were made by hand, by coiling hoops of supplejack vine. They would be weighted with stones and let down to the seabed on a rope. Some of the kaumatua remembered their parents using supplejack pots very successfully – “sometimes the boat would be so full of koura it would be only inches out of the water. Now you’d be lucky to get ten koura if you went out there. My father dropped his pots in every morning and picked up them up every night. He made the pots himself and we kids had to learn how to weave and mend them – and the nets. If the sea wasn’t too rough we’d often go out with him,” one kaumatua said.
Bobbing was also a favourite way of catching koura back then. “We’d put paua in the bottom of a sock, hang it from a string and lower it into the water. The crayfish would come for it and we’d just pick them out of the water. Sometimes we’d get half a sack full without any bother at all,” they said. They all fondly remember koura mara too – simply described as rotten koura. “We’d leave dead koura in fresh running water for two to three weeks until the tail turned white. The flesh would be clear in the centre and it would be very strong smelling. We’d mix it with vinegar, onions and salt and eat it on bread and butter. It was a delicacy – a bit like dried shark – that took some time to prepare but we ate it regularly.”
“We lived in good times and crayfish were a big part of our everyday life,” they collectively sighed. When they were young they would hunt for koura probably twice a week and they ate it in many different ways – grilled with cheese, curried, fried in butter, in a mornay sauce, or in a salad – for any meal of the day, even a morning or afternoon tea snack.
It goes without saying, that today, the giant crayfish like those adorning roadside koura stalls have helped cement Kaikoura’s image as THE place in New Zealand to find the best lobster.

Now Showing.....

City Bus, Christchurch Feb 2009. Ajr

Waka Reo

Maori Television

On the back of a bus

Bridge Art

One of the carved figures
By Hawke’s Bay-based Maori artist, Para Matchitt.
on Wellington's overhead
waterfront pedestrian walkway,
The City To Sea Bridge.

I Do.

Worcester Boulevard, Christchurch. Feb 2009 Ajr

I came upon this Maori wedding party when I was out walking in the city this afternoon. They were having their wedding photographs taken right in the middle of Worcester Boulevard. Along with the official photographers - shuffling everyone into place - there were at least a dozen tourists taking photographs too. I thought I may as well pretend to be one of them.

In Training

Waitangi Day, Mareikura Kapa Haka, Christchurch Feb 2009 Ajr

These are just some of the dozens of photographs I took of the Mareikura kapa haka performance at yesterday’s Waitangi Day celebrations at Christchurch Art Gallery. I loved the fact that they included some very small children – and this little girl almost stole the show with her confidence. It’s good to know that the youngest generation are being taught about their culture at an early age. She may not have been the best at twirling the poi (soft balls on string) but she gave it her best shot and what she lacked in skill she more than made up for with enthusiasm. There are more shots below in my Waitangi Day post.

Te Arawa Art

Te Raukura Gallery, Rotorua. Image Supplied by Rotorua Tourism.

The Arawa people have hosted visitors to Rotorua in the central North Island since the 1880s and there’s no better way for them to share their stories and history than through their art. Step into any art gallery in Rotorua and you’ll get a strong sense of Rotorua’s deep Maori heritage; but one that stands out for me is Te Raukura (The Red Feather) Gallery, which specialises in authentic contemporary and traditional Maori art. Owner, June Northcroft Grant (TeArawa, Tuwharetoa, Tuhourangi-Ngati Wahiao) is an artist herself – her works strongly influenced by her tribal histories and tupuna (ancestors) - and she has an extensive knowledge of printmaking, painting, weaving, bone carving and ceramics. She talks about a thriving Maori art scene in Rotorua: “Te Puia is the centre of customary artwork and Tarawhai Carving School at Okataina and the Ngati Whakaue Carving School at Ohinemutu have been a strong part of the community and Maori life since the late 1880s,” she says. "New contemporary works abound too with artists referencing the tupuna art to produce exciting works in paint, clay and other mediums.”

Waitangi Day Celebrations

Mareikura Performance, Christchurch Art Gallery. Waitangi Day 2009. Ajr

Today – February 6th, 2009 – marks the 169th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between Maori and Pakeha (New Zealanders of European ancestry) in 1840. The Treaty was signed in a tent in the grounds of what is now known as the Treaty house at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, north of Auckland. It made New Zealand part of the British Empire, guaranteed Maori rights to their land and the rights to be British citizens. The signing was not commemorated annually until 1947 and it wasn’t until 1973 that the day was officially marked into law as a public holiday – then called New Zealand Day. It was officially re-named Waitangi Day in 1976. Since then this national day of commemoration has often been marked by controversy and protests by Maori activists over what many feel to be treaty injustices. Away from the discontent though, many New Zealanders – Maori and Pakeha alike – celebrate the day with public concerts, festivals and traditional Maori performances. They see it as a chance to celebrate people, partnership and unity. I spent the best part of today – a very HOT day – attending the Waitangi Day celebrations at Christchurch Art Gallery. We watched a terrific traditional kapa haka performace by the Mareikura group (above), which was followed by a reading by Maori poet, Ben Brown and a performance by contemporary Maori singer, Toni Huata. I sat beside an English couple who had only been in the country three days. They’d just watched a showing of Vincent Ward’s movie, “Children of the Rain,” they were tucking in to a hangi platter and they were “blown away” by the “singing and dancing” – all up a pretty good first immersion into Maori culture I told them.

Digging Up History

Pegasus Town - Aerial View. 2008.Ajr

When I flew out of Christchurch recently, I had a clear view of the new North Canterbury town of Pegasus, 25 kilometres north of Christchurch. Viewed from the air it seems little more than an excavation site and I think the first residents have only just moved into their new house. There is a long way to go for the rest of the town, which will include hotels, shopping complexes, golf course, lakes, a yacht club and homes for 7,000 residents. In the meantime, much has been going on at ground level. Because of the town’s proximity to the old Kaiapoi Maori pa, home of the Nga Tu-ahu-riri hapu (sub-tribe of Ngai Tahu), the town’s developers, Infinity Investment Group agreed to work with a team of archaeologists and tribal representatives to ensure that any artefacts unearthed are treated appropriately. A significant number of Maori artefacts have been unearthed, including greenstone adzes, the remnants of a waka (canoe) and an ancient pou (carved post), which is believed to have been part of the old pa’s palisade defences, which were breached by fire in the 1830s. The plan is to house these and other significant cultural items in a whare taonga (cultural centre) to be built at Pegasus.

The rich historical significance of the Pegasus site has also been acknowledged in the placement of six new carved pou whenua, which make a bold statement at the entrance to the town. Carved by Fayne Robinson, Riki Manuel and Caine Tauwhare, who collectively have more than 75 years carving experience, the pou took eight months to complete. They’ve been carved from wind-felled totara logs from Okiwi Valley just north of Kaikoura and gifted by Te Runanga o Kaikoura on behalf of the people of Ngati Kuri. www.pegasustown.com

Knock, Knock Who's There?

Okains Bay Maori & Colonial Museum, Banks Peninuslar. 2008 Ajr

Loved this brass hei tiki door knocker at the Okains Bay Maori & Colonial Museum on Banks Peninsular. It was on a side door at the rear of the museum - the perfect adornment for a door leading in to one of the most impressive collections of Maori artifacts I've ever seen.

Catch, Cook, Eat

Toheroa, Invercargill. 2008. Ajr
How lucky are we to know award-winning Ngai Tahu chef, Jason Dell, who, until recently, worked as executive chef at Blanket Bay, one of New Zealand's most luxurious lodges. (He's now headed off to Singapore to set up a super-classy restaurant complex on Orchard Road). He's always been on our side. He makes us nice things to eat. He lets us wash his dishes - if we're really lucky we get to chop his parsley. It's been his mission over the last three years, to take the traditional kai (food) of South Island's Maori (all 18 Ngai Tahu runanga) and whip it into tasty dishes that give it a whole new modern interpretation. Then we sit the kaumatua down and give their taste buds a surprise.... and if we've been good, writer and photographer also get to eat. It's hard to call it work - but we insist it is! (And for anyone thinking I do nothing else but travel around eating.......well....what can I say? It's a travel guide writer's lot!)