Art Objects 

 as Taonga 



Spiritual Values 

 and Power 

 in Maori Art 



by Sidney Moko Mead 



Photos by Athol McCredie, 



courtesy the American Federation of Arts 



and Henry N. Abrams, Inc. 



The Te Maori exhibition has not only made us more 

 aware of the artworks of the Maori people of New 

 Zealand; it has also helped focus intellectual enquiry upon 

 understanding this art in its own terms. It is now in- 

 appropriate to apply Western concepts of analysis and 

 appreciation to an art tradition that is plainly not Western 

 and does not spring from a Western cultural context. 

 Rather, the new emphasis is upon trying to understand 

 Maori art from the standpoint of the culture and of the 

 people whose art it is. This means, in effect, beginning 

 with such basic notions as the word taonga, which is the 

 Maori label for art object, artwork, or artifact. 



*-l. War God (Uenukutuwhatu) 

 Wood, 267cm. (8ft. 9 in.) high 

 Found at Lake Ngaroto, 1906 

 Waikato tribes 



Te Tipunga period (1200-1500) 

 Te Awamutu Museum 



2. Lintel (Pare)-* 



Wood, shell, 235 cm. (7ft. 8 in.) wide 



Patetonga 



Ngati Tamatera tribe 



Te Huringa 1 period (1800 — present) 



Aukland Institute and Museum 



Sidney Moko Mead is professor of Maori, Victoria University of 

 Wellington. 



