Uenuku from Waikato is such an object (fig. 1). Shaped 

 somewhat like certain pieces from Hawaii or Tahiti, 

 Uenuku is a highly abstract composition that might 

 represent fingers pointing to the sacred god above, 

 Rangi-nui-e-tu-nei (The Sky Who Stands Above Us). It 

 is perhaps poetic justice that a great deal of discussion 

 had to take place before Uenuku was allowed to leave 

 New Zealand. Certainly, American viewers have recog- 

 nized the power of Uenuku. 



In the book for the exhibition, Te Maori: Maori Art 

 from New Zealand Collections, Anne Salmond** wrote 

 about Anuria Stirling's neck ornament, a tiki called 

 Mahu-tai-te-rangi. This tiki has the power to move of 

 its own accord, and there was a famous incident on 

 national television when the tiki was seen to turn itself 

 so that its back was to the camera! The explanation 

 offered by Amiria's husband was that the tiki did not 

 like what she was saying on television (fig. 5) . Salmond 

 mentioned a second example. This time the object was 

 a wooden weapon, a taiaha which belonged to the 

 famous warrior of Taranaki, Titokowaru. Titokowaru 

 fought the British and roundly defeated them on two 

 occasions, but he lost the last battle. Titokowaru's 

 taiaha, or wooden staff, was called Te Porohanga and it 

 was believed that the war god Uenuku entered it when 

 summoned to do so. Titokowaru would hold the 

 weapon horizontally between his thumb and forefinger 

 and the taiaha would then turn and point towards the 

 fighting unit who had to go and fight that day. There 

 was certainly power in that weapon. 



Another sort of power is that which causes observ- 

 ers to "feel" and "notice" the presence of great mana in 

 an object and, in noticing, respond in some way. It is as 

 though the ancestors are "willing" the observers to re- 

 spect the power before them and so acknowledge it. 

 This sort of quality is referred to as ihi (power), wehi 

 (fear), and wana (authority). Usually all three words 

 are necessary to describe this quality which has the 

 power to make people respond in some way. The re- 

 sponse might be for one's body hair to stand on end 

 and for the skin to tingle. Or it might be that one begins 

 to twitch or one might weep. All of these responses are 

 perfectly normal to the Maori people and we will not 

 stop anybody from weeping over a taonga or make 

 them feel guilty because their skin is tingling. 



When Princess Te Puea first saw the metal bird, 

 called the Korotangi, she stood in silence and wept 

 quietly for some moments. The bird was believed to 

 have come in her tribal canoe, Tainui, but the ethnol- 

 ogists are puzzled by its presence in New Zealand 

 because its associations are not Polynesian. Whatever 

 the origin of the Korotangi, Princess Te Puea reacted to 

 it and felt its imminent power. Whether she felt the 



20 



"From "Nga Huarahi O Te Ao Maori, Pathways in the Maori 

 World," p. 109. 



power of her own people or of some alien people we do 

 not know. What is interesting is that the quality of ihi, 

 wehi, and wana, which is recognized by the Maori peo- 

 ple, might actually be felt by people of other cultures 

 even when they do not have a theory to account for it. 

 For the Maori, good art has ihi, wehi, and wana. With- 

 out this quality we do not have a taonga whakairo (art 

 object). All we might have is a stick or a stone that is 

 decorated. 



I mentioned earlier that a taonga has life of its own 

 in the sense of having a history. It might have as well a 

 mauri, or life principle. People have a mauri, as do 

 things such as forests and land. Mauri, like hau, refers 

 to the vitality of growing things, to their fertility and 

 productivity. In this sense an art object cannot be com- 

 pared to man, vegetation, and land. Nonetheless, some 

 of my colleagues in the Maori world, for example, John 

 Rangihau,* believe that inanimate things such as art do 

 have a mauri. What an art object might also have is an 

 iho, which means "heart, inside, kernel, a pith" or that 

 which gives the object its power and its strength as a 

 work of art. However, when a named art object is given 

 a personality and power to react like a human being, 

 then it is also thought to possess a mauri. This mauri is 

 not an inherent part of the material object, but rather is 

 part of its spoken life, its life in words, its history, and 

 its tapu-mana. As these qualities are given by people, 

 they can also be removed by them when, say, the object 

 has "died" and is to be replaced. The mauri is part of the 

 cultural existence of the object rather than of its natural 

 existence as wood, bone, or stone (fig. 6). 



The qualities which I have referred to, namely ihi, 

 wehi, and wana, mauri, hau, and iho all point to the fact 

 of Maori art objects possessing what we might call spir- 

 itual quality or spirituality which, in turn, point to 

 something we might call a religious response among 

 the people. It is time to ask about the source of the spir- 

 itual quality. Where does it come from? Why is there a 

 sacred quality to art objects? 



There is but one source (which I explain below), 

 but there are several channels to the source. The first 

 has to do with the origin myth of woodcarving. 

 According to the beliefs of some of the Eastern tribes, 

 woodcarving was obtained from the realm of the Sea 

 God Tangaroa. Tangaroa was one of the sons of the 

 Sky-Father, Rangi, and of the Earth-Mother, Papa- 

 tuanuku. Ruatepupuke went down into Tangaroa's 

 kingdom and there found the carved model of a 

 meetinghouse. After some adventures there Ruate- 

 pupeke returned to earth with some of the house carv- 

 ings and these became the model for the great carver, 

 Hingangaroa, of the East Coast. This was how the godly 

 gift of carving was transferred out of the hands of the 



* In Te Ao Hurihuri: The World Moves On (Aspects of Maoritanga) , 

 Hicks Smith & Sons Ltd, Wellington. 1957. 



