Ancient Northern and Western Carving has a Ngati Awa origin

Te Ao Hou, April 1958, Page 31

Ancient Northern and Western Carving has a Ngati Awa origin When I visited Panguru, Hokianga, last November I met Ngakuru Pene Haare, who is an authority on the traditions and Maori lore of the North. I asked him whether he knew who made the Burial Chests found at Waimamaku. He told me that in Hapakuku Moetara's view these were not the work of the Ngapuhi proper, but of an older people, the Ngati Awa. This confirmed my own impression after various visits to the North and after reading about the various finds there, at Waitara and at Thames, and relating these to the pas in the Mangonui, North and South Hokianga and Bay of Islands—that there was a connection between the pa builders and the carvers. Recently I became interested in the carvings and meeting house architecture of Taranaki in order to determine how the Rotorua School should set about carving the slabs for the Waitara House. It is certain that the carved houses of the Northern and Western districts were destroyed in the Maori Wars of the early part of the last century, though some carvings were hidden in the swamps. The art was then lost, but some of the chiefs sought to reconstruct it. Two old men—between 75 and 80 years of age—told me yesterday of a carved house at Puniho, which they remembered seeing as children. They remembered one feature of the tekoteko at the base of the poutokomanawa—named Rua Taranaki—its very large phallus. But they reluctantly admitted that the whakairo was brought from Tairawhiti. I had been prepared for this, as in other respects (the Io cult, Whare Wananga teachings, etc.). I have seen strong evidence Wanganui district. The old men of Taranaki have no tradition of carvings having come in the Aotea Canoe, and think that only the Ati-Awa (Ngati-Awa) of the Waitara District had a knowledge of the art.