Page 65 - Constructing Craft
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Rākau (Wood)
Traditional Māori woodcarving barely survived the impact of European contact. For
the majority of Māori before the Second World War the marae (meeting area) was
the centre of community life, and within that environment, different forms of carving
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were integral to the design of whare and the production of ornaments and
weapons. Whare whakairo and museums, in particular, became valuable
repositories of the best carving. In 1968 the author Katerina Mataira (Ngāti Porou)
identified three distinct waves of whare whakairo building over the previous hundred
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years. From 1870 to about 1890 she believed that Te Kooti, the leader of the
Tuhoe tribe and resister of British land confiscations, influenced the style. Early
missionaries had suppressed crafts such as woodcarving and it was Te Kooti who
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led its revival. From 1890 to the 1920s smaller houses with carving of ‘lesser
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quality’ influenced by the “Young Māori Party” appear. This was followed by the
increasing use of European building methods but with traditional decoration. The
survival of woodcarving was strongest in areas dominated by the Te Arawa
confederation of iwi, largely because of the founding of Te Wānanga Whakairo
Rākau (Carving School) at Rotorua 1926 - 7.
The names and achievements of many early Māori carvers have remained largely
unrecorded in European history but they live on in the whakapapa (family trees)
recited by Māori on special occasions. Here, one who was not only a renowned
carver but also an orator, warrior, weaver, genealogist, film actor and chief is
recorded to show the link between carvers in the nineteen century and the twentieth
century. The later carvers looked to many ancestors, particularly those of the same
iwi, to guide them in their craft.
Te Pairi Tuterangi was probably born in the 1840s in the heart of the Urewera
country on the East Coast of the North Island, well known as the territory of Te
Kooti. During lulls in the wars of the 1860s Te Kooti encouraged his followers to
establish carving schools, and it was at this time Te Pairi began to acquire his
knowledge of carving. In 1872 Te Kooti took refuge in the King Country under the
protection of King Tawhiao who commissioned the building and carving of Te
Tokanganui-a-noho meeting house at Te Kuiti. It was here that Te Pairi furthered
his knowledge of carving. Later, Te Pairi took responsibility for the carving of Te
Constructing Craft