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Maori Post Figure: Poutokomanawa



Background:

Maori Post Figure: Poutokomanawa
Maori Post Figure: Poutokomanawa
About 1840
Wood, paua shell
Gift of Curtis Galleries, Inc.

Key Ideas
Story
Background

The Meeting House
Origins
Body and Meaning
Surface gloss
Ownership

Discussion Questions

The ancestors of the Maori immigrated to New Zealand over 1000 years ago, when Polynesian sailors sailed southward from the Island of Hawaii.1 The Maori are divided into about 50 tribes who trace their descent to individuals who arrived in the first canoes (called the "founding canoes"). Over the generations these tribes developed into complex social groups known as waka, which in many instances were named for the founding canoes. Tribal affiliation is more important than a sense of national identity. In fact, Maori is not an ancient name, but came about as a result of their encounters with voyagers from the northern hemisphere from the 18th century onwards. The word Maori means clear, fresh or natural; it also means usual or ordinary. The original inhabitants described themselves as ordinary (maori), as belonging to a collective group clearly different from the new (and extraordinary) arrivals.


The Maori's first sustained contact with Europeans happened on October 6, 1792 when the British Captain Cook and his crew landed in Poverty Bay in New Zealand. As a result of this visit, the British decided to colonize New Zealand. The Maori resisted these colonization efforts, and warfare with the British continued until 1865 when the British, having superior weapons, finally overcame them. Similar to the course of events in North America, within a few decades the native people were forced to give up most of their land, and to see their culture and language undermined by European influences. They also fell victims to the European diseases brought by the new settlers, with the result that the Maori population decreased dramatically during the 19th century. Both Catholic and Protestant missionaries were active in New Zealand early on, so that by 1840 almost all the Maori had become Christians.

In recent decades there has been a concerted effort on the part of both the government and the Maori people to revive their language, traditions and art forms, and they now have representation in parliament. The native Maori population is also increasing.

Maori meeting house

Maori meeting house

The Meeting House
The most important building in any community was, and still is, the meeting house, the community's most powerful statement of identity. The primary purpose of traditional Maori art is to make this house beautiful. The meeting house itself symbolically represents a particular ancestor, whose spirit is enclosed by the building. The ridge-pole is likened to the ancestor's backbone, and the rafters to the ancestor's ribs. All ceremonies and decisions concerning the community take place here.

Origins
This stately figure was the principal carving in a meeting house of the Hawkes Bay region on the eastern coast of New Zealand's North Island. (This building no longer exists and was probably destroyed by fire.) Its Maori name is poutokamanawa, a term given to the post incorporating an ancestral figure that supports the main ridge-beam of a carved house. Poutokamanawa have the sacred ceremonial duty of welcoming the community and receiving guests as they enter the building. Consequently, all who enter are enfolded by the ancestral spirit.

House Panel  

Another example of a meeting house carving.

House Panel
Maori
About 1880
Wood, shell
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts

 

Roll over the image to see details of body and meaning found on the Maori Post Figure: Poutokomanawa

Tekoteko Figure

Another Maori figure which shows similar body characteristics

Tekoteko Figure
Maori
1775-1800
Wood, mother-of-pearl
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts


Close-up of surface patina

Close-up of surface patina from the Maori Post Figure: Poutokomanawa

Body and Meaning
Like all sacred carvings, a poutokamanawa was made by highly skilled carver-priests, observing very specific rituals and ceremonial restrictions. Poutokamanawa are not completely naturalistic because they represent ancestral spirits, whose role is to comfort and watch over their living descendents.2 The head is disproportionately large because the Maori consider the head to be the center of personal power. The large hands spread over the abdomen emphasize the center of the body, the navel, believed to be the center of life force. It is marked on this statue by a raised disc. The navel (maori-ora) was considered to be the link between the people still on earth and their ancestral spirits. Individualistic tattoo patterns incised on the face may replicate those of a specific ancestor. The hair is bound up in a topknot, characteristic of a warrior chief, and the stern eyes are inlaid with paua shell, which adds life and fire to the gaze of the statue. This figure escaped mutilation during the 19th century by zealous missionaries, who regarded such carvings as creations of the devil.

The large hands spread over the abdomen emphasize the center of the body, the navel, believed to be the center of life force The navel (maori-ora) was considered to be the link between the people still on earth and their ancestral spirits Individualistic tattoo patterns incised on the face may replicate those of a specific ancestor The stern eyes are inlaid with paua shell, which adds life and fire to the gaze of the statue The head is disproportionately large because the Maori consider the head to be the center of personal power The hair is bound up in a topknot, characteristic of a warrior chief

Surface gloss
A post figure is eagerly caressed and embraced by the Maori, who press their noses against its nose, showing deep respect and affection. It is given a protective coat of varnish that produces its high gloss finish, and is further polished by generations of affectionate touching.

Ownership
This poutokomanawa was carved in the 1840s, and was later given to Archbishop William Williams (1800-1878) about the time he retired to Hawkes Bay in the 1880s, as a tribute to the love and friendship he showed his parishioners.3 It is one of the few post figures that remained privately owned until it was acquired by a museum (The Minneapolis Institute of Arts).

1 Starzecka, op.cit., 30. Return to Text
2 For a complete description of poutokomanawa and the relative Maori terminology, see the entry 162 in Sotheby's Auction Catalogue, Important African and Oceanic Art, New York, Nov. 22, 1999, pp. 25-28. Return to Text
3 His grandson, Dr. A. H. Williams, brought the poutokomanawa to England sometime in the 1880s, where it remained in the possession of successive family members. Return to Text

Key Ideas Story Background Discussion Questions
 
 

 

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