Free-standing male figure

From the limited evidence available it seems likely that these images represent deified ancestors, and that they date to the period prior to missionary activity. The Maori had been in regular contact with Europeans since Captain Cook’s first landing in 1769, and as a result had acquired metal tools and other exotic goods, but these early encounters with Europeans had only a limited effect on indigenous Maori beliefs and rituals. Missionary influence, however, increased steadily during the decades following their arrival in 1814, and whereas ancestor images appear to have been acceptable to Christians when incorporated as architectural ‘ornament’ in elaborately carved Maori houses, they were not acceptable when they took the form of individual ‘idols’. This may account for the rarity of the type.

This particular image is in general well preserved, though unfortunately it has been emasculated and the feet are damaged at the front and back. The hair, which formerly would have covered the back of the head, is also missing, though this reveals the topknot projection and holes for lashing. The ears are pierced for pendants and the right knee and possibly the navel are carved to receive Haliotis shell inlay, now lost; the eyes are inlaid with Haliotis shell rings, the right probably an ancient replacement, since the rim is not serrated. The eye inlay is not composed of two rings, as reported by Barrow (1959: 1 13).

A notable aspect of this sculpture is that the tattoo patterns on both face and buttocks are remarkably similar to those on the equally fine free-standing image in the National Museum, Wellington, which was formerly in the Oldman collection (Oldman, 1938 pl. 73; Barrow, 1959: 111-12; Mead, 1984: 124, 213). Although the Oldman image is clearly by another hand, the similarity of the tattoo patterns may indicate that both images were carved to represent the same deified ancestor, whose distinctive tattoo (with the right cheek and forehead left plain) was known and recorded within his community, most probably one of those inhabiting the Gisborne area on the East Coast of North Island.

Free-standing images of ancestral deities were a feature of ritual systems in other areas of Polynesia, and a close parallel with Maori images can be seen in the ’aumakua images of pre-Christian Hawaii (Cox and Davenport, 1974: 94—1o3), which are described as ‘family or personal gods’. These are also relatively naturalistic in form, often having human hair. Such images acted as a channel for communication with ancestral spirits, who entered the images during ritual, and it is likely that New Zealand Maori images fulfilled a similar function.

Steven Hooper, 1997

Entry taken from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection, Vol. 2: Pacific, African and Native North American Art, edited by Steven Hooper (Yale University Press, 1997) pp. 4-6.

In the early 1990s I travelled as a young Māori museum worker to the Field Museum in Chicago, where I encountered a large number of Māori taonga (treasures). I had ambivalence and conflicting emotions, as encountering these ancestral treasures in a distant land evoked a great sense of awe and respect for their artistic beauty and mana (power), yet sadness knowing that they had been separated and disconnected from their descendants and landscape. Working on the restoration of the Ruatepupuke carved meeting house in Chicago, I personally experienced how the spirit was uplifted when its descendants reconnected and readorned Ruatepupuke.

I first came across this treasure, often described as a ‘free-standing’ figure, when I participated at the opening of the Pacific Encounters exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre in 2006. He represents an important ancestor in the Māori world. I often think about who created these treasures, for whom, and what role and purpose they fulfilled in their time. Although the journey of this taonga has taken him to distant places, one thing is certain: he has a whakapapa (genealogy), he would have been named, and he would have been an important ancestor for his people back in Aotearoa, or New Zealand.

My inspiration when seeing taonga like this is to know that they don’t remain hidden and unknown. Māori identity is being revitalised and these treasures are becoming vital symbols in this dynamic process. Reconnecting a hidden treasure such as this with his people can only enhance his mana – as he stands beside and communicates with other ancestors in the Sainsbury Centre gallery.

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Arapata Hakiwai, curator and Māori leader, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa