All Maori Carving is of Ngati-Awa origin

Te Ao Hou, July 1958, Page 30

All Maori Carving is of Ngati-Awa origin We now come to the earlier Ngati-Awa work which we say was distributed over the North Hauraki and Taranaki. In Percy Smith's story of the Peopling of the North (printed as a supplement to Vol, VI of the Journal of Polynesian Society) the period of the Ngati Awa occupation of the North was shown to have occurred in the 15th and 16th centuries, when the Ngati Awa were forced southwards to Tauranga and Taranaki. The northern traditions speak of a Ngati-Kahu section, which occupied the Mangonui district, and connects it with Ngati-Kahungunu. There appears to be a conflict between these and the East Coast traditions which bring Tamatea and his sons from overseas in Takitimu. The latter agree, however, that Kahungunu—the Kahungunu who established himself in the Gisborne-Mahia area—at one time resided near Tauranga where he quarrelled with Whaene and whence he migrated to the East Coast. If traditions conflict or are obscure the extant evidence of Ngati Awa culture is eloquent enough, Carving found in river silt near Opotiki. (Photo from Phillipps, Maori Carving Illustrated)

Above: One of the Te Kaha carvings reputed to be the best Maori work in existence, now in the Auckland War Memorial Museum. (Photo Peter Blanc.) This points to two schools of carving so ably distinguished by Dr Archey. In opposition to the theory of diffusion from the Western Pacific of Melanesian sources Dr Archey stressed local development of both schools and this I believe to be correct. However, the work of the two schools as they are known to us, was produced at different stages in their development, the eastern carvings being more recent than the North-western ones. This made me wonder whether the comparison was a fair one; and whether features which may really be of a later stage in the evolution of East Coast-Bay of Plenty technique and designs have not over-shadowed other features of the carvings of that area, which establish a close relationship to those of the Northern area and suggest that there was a time when much of the Northern work was typical of the other area. The Ngati-Awa School—if we may attribute the North Auckland. Hauraki, Taranaki carvings to that people—ceased developmnt in the Stone Age period in the North and Hauraki, possibly in Taranaki also—leaving its monuments in caves and swamps. The students disposed to look for a diffusion from some centre will not overlook the Bay of Plenty origin of Ngati-Awa and will attach great value to the early inhabitants of that district. And if a tribe of the Toi Blood, closely connected with the Bay of Plenty is also found in the 14th–15th, centuries, in full possession of the same art a presumption is permissible of one origin. Confirmation that a branch of this carving tradition was taken north comes from Percy Smith “The Peopling of the North”. Speaking of Rauru, son of Toi, he quotes supporting East Coast traditions regarding the same ancestor: “Ko te tipuna o te uri mohio ki te whakairo, o Ngati-Kahungunu”— This is the ancestor of the tribes learned in carving of Ngati-Kahungunu. The latter tribal name was as often applied to the East Coast-Poverty Bay people as the name Ngati Porou—that branch did not develop much further in the north because the Ngati Awa were driven out. The specimens found in the Taranaki district show little if any elaboration on those from Helensville and are probably unaffected by European tools.