TE MAORI continued from p. 10 



youth." He tried his best to build a house that would 

 serve as a fitting honor to her. 



Stories such as that of the chief, Te Waru, empha- 

 size the fact that a taonga such as a carved house or 

 even the decorated parts of a house are much more 

 than what the eyes see (fig. 4). The carvers who created 

 them were committed to their construction in a way 

 that is difficult for modern carvers to appreciate. Their 

 reputations, their mana (prestige, power), and indeed 

 their lives were invested in the objects they created. 

 When the carvers die on the job and when the officiat- 

 ing tohunga risk their lives to create a valuable object 

 for the community, the result cannot be an ordinary art 

 object. We are looking at different values and at differ- 

 ent attitudes toward valuable objects. These are the 

 attitudes associated with the concept of taonga. 



One cannot and should not be aloof and detached 

 from a taonga. Rather, the viewer should display a com- 

 mitment to it. The nature of the commitment can be 

 contemplated and understood by thinking about the 

 way in which Maori people act towards valuable art 

 objects. For example, the taonga brought to the United 

 States have been put through several rituals before their 

 arrival. One such ritual occurred before leaving the 

 museum where the objects were kept and another be- 

 fore they were finally enclosed in coffinlike boxes for 

 consignment on an airplane. There were important 

 ritual ceremonies to open Te Maori at the Metropolitan, 

 at the St. Louis Art Museum, and at the de Young 

 Museum in San Francisco. There will also be such a 

 ceremony at the Field Museum. 



On such ritual occasions one is able to think of the 

 carvers who made these objects, in some cases many 

 centuries ago. The collection of objects forces one to 

 think of our ancestors who have all passed on, of their 

 joys and pains, of their dreams for us, of their successes 

 and their failures. Above all we acknowledge them for 

 giving us something to behold with our eyes and our 

 minds, something to call our own and be proud to 

 show the world and something which helps to give us, 

 the people of today, an identity. 



Some objects are invested with great mana. Objects 

 of this sort are named, and by being named they reflect 

 the importance given to them by the people. The adze 

 associated with the Aotea canoe and named a Tawhio- 

 rangi is a highly tapu taonga which has great mana. This 

 taonga was lost for a very long period of time, from the 

 time of the land wars until very recently when it was 

 found in the ground. Its discovery caused great excite- 

 ment, and as a taonga of great antiquity it was wept 

 over and then put away for safekeeping. It is said that 

 people who mistreat this taonga or who touch it with- 

 out good cause are "hurt" by it. The person who found 

 it is said to be suffering as a result of handling 

 the adze. 



5. Pendant. Hei-tiki Rutataewhenga 



Greenstone, 12 cm. (4 3/4 in.) high 



TUparoa 



Ngati Porou tribe 



Te Tipunga period (1200-1500) 



Hawke 5 Bay Art Gallery and Museum, Napier 



Generally speaking, the greater the value of the 

 object to the widest number of people in a tribe, the 

 more mana-tapu is associated with it. Raymond Firth, 

 in his book Economics of the New Zealand Maori* dis- 

 cussed this notion under the category of magic. The 

 tapu made the object very sacred, and its mana gave it a 

 force that had the power to hurt or to do things that are 

 not associated in other cultures with art objects. It is 

 certainly not present in all art objects in the Maori 

 world. Among the items in "Te Maori" are several that 

 are believed to have a power that is a consequence of 

 their great mana-tapu. The representation of the god 



* Published by Government Printer, Wellington, New Zealand, 

 1959. 



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