Page 271 - Constructing Craft

Heitiki and Manaia. Bone carvings by Owen Mapp. These works are
indicative of some of Mapp’s earlier pieces. Photo: Peter Cape.

Bi-cultural Craft

Craftspeople, like Mapp, with feet in both cultural camps were treading a perilous

route. In 1985, Mapp, recognised throughout New Zealand as one the country’s top
carvers, submitted a carved box to a Crafts Council exhibition called the ‘Winstone

Ties That Bind’. The work was rejected by the ‘foreign’ judge, Marlise Staehelin,
who Mapp described as being ‘unfamiliar with New Zealand’s ethnic background

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and bi-cultural growth’. He was further insulted by a comment she wrote on the
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rejection slip: “Though I’m Swiss I don’t yodel”. Clearly angry, he questioned how
she could know his racial background except through the Wellington City Art

Gallery, where the exhibition was being held, and condemned the director if that
was the case. As if to add insult to injury, one of the works that was commended by

the judge was a flax weaving by a European using traditional Māori weaving

techniques. Summing up the conundrum, Mapp pointed out that had Staehelin
judged the carved box in Europe it could well have been rejected for being imitative

of the European Art Nouveau style which Mapp claimed had similar design
elements. Mapp followed these points with questions that went to the heart of the

debate about the role of studio craft in a bi-cultural society such as New Zealand.

Constructing Craft