Page 109 - Constructing Craft

Juliet Batten. Photo: New Zealand Crafts.

The Debate and Māori

Te Reo Māori (the Māori language) appears to have made no distinction between
45
art and craft, with the word for art, ‘toi’, interlinked with craft ‒ ‘mahi toi’. ‘Mahi’ also
had an association with work, for instance ‘mahi kōhikohiko’ (casual work), mahi
tīpako (shift work) and ngā mahi a te rēhia, (the pursuit of pleasure, recreational

activities). More commonly, a particular craft was specified either with art or craft,
for instance, ‘toi whakairo’ (the art/craft of carving) or ‘ngā mahi a te whare pora’

(the art/craft of weaving), although for mats and baskets the terms ‘raranga, rangaa

and rangaia’ (to weave or plait and weaving) could also apply. It was this
intermingling of craft and art that undoubtedly caused Māori to be wary of becoming

embroiled in arguments about the place of craft in the field of art.

Māori were subject to a variety of pressures that either sought to restrict their arts

and crafts to its traditional mode and to commoditise it through books and tourism
46
as an exotic ‘other’, or attempted to encourage the modernisation of Māori art and

Constructing Craft