Traditional Māori Arts |
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The first Polynesian settlers who arrived in Aotearoa about 1000 years ago already knew how to make implements and ornaments. Over a period of some 500 years the skills and knowledge they had brought with them evolved into the traditional Māori arts as we know them today. Principal among these are carving (Te toi whakairo) and weaving (Ngā mahi a te whare pora).
The pressing need for canoes, as well as shelter suited to New Zealand's cooler climate meant that a lot of effort and ingenuity went into wood carving. The carvers were assisted by the ready availability of soft timbers and hard stone for tools which encouraged them to develop sophisticated designs and techniques. Similarly, with weaving the cooler climate created a demand for textiles. With the failure of the Pandanus plant (that had been brought from Polynesia) to grow in Aotearoa conditions, New Zealand flax and other local plants were quickly adopted as sources of fibre. Apart from clothing, fibre was used for a variety of purposes, both functional and decorative.
What began as a response to new materials and climate gradually evolved into a highly developed material culture, affected by changes in fashion as well as political formation and the emergence of tribal identity. By about AD1500 most principal styles of design and facture had been developed.
After European settlement, Māori arts underwent convulsive change in response to social upheaval and the introduction of new technology. Some arts flourished while others virtually disappeared. The introduction of steel tools, for instance, had a major impact on carving.
Throughout these changes and to the present day, the marae has remained the spiritual centre of Māori life and culture: sustaining tradition and accommodating experimentation by contemporary artists with new materials and forms.
Carving was a sacred profession and tohunga whakairo (master carvers) were revered members of the tribe. For the Māori believed that the artist was an intermediary through whom the gods expressed themselves. This meant that carving was subject to the observances of tapu, or appeasement of the gods whose care and protection was crucial to the wellbeing and prosperity of the individual as well as the tribe.
The concept of mauri (life force) is fundamental to understanding the place of carving in the Māori value system: a system in which all things possessed mauri and wairua (spirit). For instance, because to fell a tree from the forest was also to take the offspring of Tāne-Mahuta (the god of forests and man), such an act had to be accompanied by rituals of thanks and appeasement.
As the spiritual hub of the tribe, the whare whakairo (carved meeting house) enshrines all that is most sacred to the tribe and much of what is sacred is rendered in carving. In the words of the Ngāti Porou kaumātua, Tai Pewhairangi, speaking of the carved poutokomanawa figure, the pare and the whakahūia:
'They (taonga) carry within them the mana of the old people, and they are part of the line of descent which stretches from the most distant past and into the most distant future.'
For Māori, weaving is both an applied art and a medium through which cultural values are passed on. Traditionally, as with the male carver, the female weaver embodied important tribal customs and traditions. And like carving, the art of weaving was based on deep respect for the mauri (lifeforce) of the natural world.
Adapting to a cooler climate and to the new materials they found here, the Polynesians who first settled in Aotearoa gradually developed new weaving techniques. Native plants such as harakeke (New Zealand flax; Phormium tenax), pingao (Demoschoenus spiralis), and kiekie (Freycinetea banksii) yielded fibre which was made into clothing designed to cope with the harsher conditions. A wide variety of containers, lashings and fastenings were also produced from these fibres.
European colonisation influenced Māori weaving, too. Weavers incorporated such innovations as dyed wool oversewn on traditional weaving and even made small 'evening bags' with tasselled fringes, which imitated European fashions.
However, it is worth noting that Māori weaving does not employ any of the equipment common to many other cultures, such as looms, spinning wheels and needles. Some of the principal Māori weaving techniques are; whatu (employed in cloaks and small fibre bags); tāniko (a special weaving technique often used for decorative effect); and raranga (a basket- making technique which has survived more or less unchanged since pre-European times).
Traditional Maori Arts. Adapted with Te Papa's permission from Taonga Māori:
a spiritual journey expressed through Māori art, published by the National
Museum in association with the Australian Museum, 1989. Discover: Te Kohanga
Taonga, updated June 29 2002. URL: http://discover.natlib.govt.nz
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