Background Te Maori – the exhibition

Tu Tangata, Issue 31, 1 August 1986, Page 6

Background Te Maori - the exhibition

na Michael Romanos

T" e Maori, the exhibition of 174 pieces of intricate, sacred Maori artifacts, revered by generations of Maori people, has been acclaimed by hundreds of thousands of people in the United States.

In New York, Te Maori was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 1984 till January 1985. Te Maori was described by the metropolitan art chairman, Douglas Newman as “one of the great art styles in the world, yet nothing like it has ever been shown outside of New Zealand before.”

The exhibition shifted to the St Louis Art Museum until May 1985, then to the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco for seven months and finally winding up in Chicago before returning in June this year to its homeland.

But before the artifacts are dispersed to the 13 museums where they are housed, Te Maori will tour New Zealand with sites at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and spanning 12 months.

The opening of Te Maori at New York’s art metro was considered the most unusual in the 115 year history of the museum. Similar to those performed later at St Louis and San Francisco, the ceremony started at dawn.

Ninety Maori dignatories and a group

Maori tribesman gathered, chanting. In procession they made their way up the vast expanse of steps at New York’s most venerable art institution. A haka was performed. Maori elders addressed their ancestors in low, soothing chants and each artifact was given due recognition by the procession as it moved past the exhibits.

The ritual was required not for any “grand parade” but in order to lift the tapu from the taonga. Maori culture believes taonga are imbued with the living spirts of their ancestors.

It took almost 10 years of negotiations with the elders of nearly three dozen tribes before agreement was reached to allow the museum-held objects to form Te Maori and be exhibited overseas. It is an extremely sensitive area in allowing any taonga out of the country.

Various royals and past governors let alone art buyers and collectors have taken maori artifacts out of the country, and so far most of their inheritors or possessors have resisted returning thousands of artifacts to their rightful home.

Maui Pomare. a New Zealand museum director has personally catalogued over 10,000 Maori artifact pieces held outside of New Zealand. The maori form of gifting of treasures is really one

of a loan to be returned from whence they originated. Certainly not to be passed on as heirlooms by the recipients or sold for profit. Pakehas and pakeha institutions have failed to understand these cultural requirements.

The Te Maori exhibits range from small ornaments to entire carved housefronts and date from 900 AD. Material includes sculptures and carvings in wood, jade, bone and shell. There is a 9cm greenstone amulet called a tiki with bulbous head and staring eyes and there is an awesome 6 metre carved wooden gateway of Pukeroa Pa, a fortified village which went out of existence in 1845.

What the objects have in common is intricate spiral carvings and often sinuous shapes. The art form is considered splendid. It is indeed thoroughly compelling in its visual manifestation of life and death, complex illustrations of Maori myths of creation, ancient heroic legends and history. Certainly there is beauty in the style, shape and pounamu of such artifacts as the toki tool, the heimatau and the kotaite,a fiddle shaped hand to hand weapon.

One of the oldest pieces on tour is the imposingly simple 3 metre curved wooden post that looks rather like the top scroll of a cello. It is the symbol of

Uenuku, the war-god of the Waikato tribes. According to tradition, the post is the dwelling place of Uenuku, the guardian spirit, and is said to have been brought to Aotearoa by the first Maori ancestors. The carving is an eminent example of the immense spiritualism of maori art.

The exhibition’s most aggressive figures and most challenging, defiant gazes belong to those carved on waka tupapaku. Maori mourners upended these chests in caves to scare off intruders. How valuable is Te Maori? “Well, you cannot put a price on your heritage but the United States Government insured it for Austs4o million,” said Professor Mead. Professor Mead sees the exhibition as having two main results. “Maori art, already recognised as one of the great forms of primitive art in the world, will be given greater international recognition. In turn, it will increase the awareness of New Zealanders to the true value of their national artistic heritage.”

Te Maori was largely funded by Mobil Oil, New Zealand Government grants and the four art museums in the United States where it is exhibited. Mobil Oil contributed about three-quarters of a

selection of the artifacts at a total cost of $300,000. The vital role of the waka,is exemplified in the elaboratory carved canoe prows and sterns as displayed in Te Maori.

Sidney Moko Mead, professor of Maori studies at Victoria University in Wellington said art serves two functions for the Maori.

“It provides a direct, immediate portrayal of the ancestors and it also functions as myth, depicting how people relate to their environment, other people and to the natural world. Even in areas where the Maori have forgotten the myths, art still has ancestral meaning - it is spirituality or the essence of the ancestors,” said Professor Mead.

“Landscape and artifacts are one in Maori life. The association between people and art is closer than what is usual in contemporary western culture.

“The exhibition does not have all our best pieces. There are some which are so valuable that no one in his right mind would suggest they should go. But the exhibition is representative.”

It is estimated 750,000 people visited Te Maori during the 20 months in the United States. Extensive television coverage like the ABC “Good Morning America” show has taken Te Maori into the homes of many millions of Americans.

Despite enormous interest from European and Australian art connections, Te Maori will not be exhibited elsewhere, at least in the near future.

Te Maori is not something that is ongoing. Maoridom were on tenterhooks with the exhibition in the United States and they regard the whole idea as a one-off situation.

million dollars and produced a magnificent limited edition 410 mm by 590 mm Te Maori calendar/portfolio depicting a