Written and edited by Karl Chitham Kolokesa U Māhina-Tuai Damian Skinner Research by Rigel Sorzano Crafting A CULTURAL HISTORY OF MAKING IN AND THE WIDER MOANA OCEANIA 106 000 4 Craft and 5 Craft and Contents the authentic tourism 000 St Barnabas’ Chapel, 000 Souvenirs of the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’ Ann Calhoun Richard Wolfe 6 46 000 Polynesian Corpuscles: 000 Crafting Tracing Cultural Stratification Tryphena Cracknell Introduction 2 Craft on board Through Craft 000 A Novelty Barometer 55 Cook Samplers Ioana Gordon-Smith Marguerite Hill 16 Vivien Caughley 000 Needlework in the New 000 The Coral Route 58 Blacksmithing on Guam Zealand Education System Lynette Townsend 1 Craft and Stella Lange Michael Bevacqua 000 The Shell island nations 62 The Ancestry of te Aute 000 From Furniture Restoration As Artefact/Art Object to Faking Taonga 21 The Ancestors of the Arts Nikau Gabrielle Hindin John Perry Elizabeth Cotton Tēvita `Ō Ka`ili 65 An Iconic Collectible 000 Maori Culture and the 000 Makea: Queen of Rarotonga, 28 No Tangaroa ke tena marae: Donald Kerr Contemporary Scene Connecting with Oceania Preserver of Women’s Weaving Taarati Taiaroa 76 Traditions Julie Paama-Pengelly 000 Fashioning Souvenirs Joanna Cobley 37 The Exchange of Kula 3 Craft and belief Elizabeth Wratislav 000 The Havelock Work: Feathers Between Fiji, 83 Craft and ‘Civilisation’ 000 The Geyser Room Experience Tonga and Sāmoa at the LMS Museum Craft and the Occult Michael Smythe Georgina White Tarisi Vunidilo Chris Wingfield 000 The World Came Knocking 000 Liberty and Co. 41 Pulotu, Hawaiki and Lapita 87 Identifying Early Kevin Murray Hūfanga `Ōkusitino Māhina Colonial-made Furniture in New Zealand William Cottrell Walter Cook 000 Mary Eleanor Joachim, 94 The Art of Tuvalu Crochet: Kolose Bookbinder Malama T-Pole Margery Blackman 000 The Women’s Section, 97 The Canterbury Provincial Council Chamber Ceiling New Zealand and South Seas Ann Calhoun International Exhibition, 1925–26 100 ‘God in their luggage’ Moira White Julie Adams 001 Julie Paama-Pengelly working on a tā moko client at the Ngā Uri o Muturangi: Indigenous Space event in , 2019. Introduction

In twenty-first-century Aotearoa New Zealand, the handmade Māori sovereignty and ownership of cultural traditions. object and the skills required in making are celebrated by Alongside the reclaiming of Māori language and tikanga, many different groups and for many different reasons. To Māori women revived kauae tehe, referred to at the time show what this means, here are seven stories about craft as moko kauae.1 In August 2016, Labour MP Nanaia Mahuta became the With the revival of kauae tehe, Māori women started first woman to wear a kauae tehe in Parliament. This practising tā moko, which many thought was reserved only historically important occasion represented a renewed for men. Chris Harvey, based in , learned her confidence by Māori to show their identity and mana craft in the 1990s under the mentorship of tohunga through a reclaimed cultural practice, and it was a political and tohunga tā moko Riki Manuel; others include Julie changer in the way tā moko might indicate Māori Paama-Pengelly, based in Tauranga, who has worked as a issues of grievance. Mahuta was one of fourteen women curator, kaitāmoko and writer.2 She has advocated for the from Waikato–Maniapoto who received their kauae tehe role of women in tā moko and particularly in using this shift as part of an intergenerational mokopapa wānanga, in gender roles to revitalise toi Māori such as kauae tehe as a gathering to receive tā moko, that took place at Waahi both respectful of the past and reflective of contemporary Pā marae. lifestyles. Her tā moko, performed for over 20 years, Historically, tā moko is done using an uhi to chisel or incorporates elements of kōwhaiwhai combined with incise designs directly into the skin. Tā moko represents a balanced approach to positive and negative space, giving 001 the wearer’s whakapapa and mana within their hapū her designs a contemporary sensibility while still referencing and iwi. For Māori women, the kauae tehe was a rite of the mokopapa of her tā moko. passage marking the transition into adulthood. Throughout This interest in the whakapapa and development of the colonial period tā moko became both illegal and tā moko can be charted in recent shifts in the tools utilised reclaiming the uhi and are exploring a more customary seventeen Moana Oceania ethnic groups were identified in unfashionable, and by the 1970s the practice had disappeared by tohunga tā moko. The artform has seen a progression approach to tā moko application. She is clear that the New Zealand in the 2013 census, and for fifteen of these almost completely; only a few elderly men and women wore through the adaption of the tools, from the uhi of the integrity of her work is related to her understanding of how groups, including Sāmoa, , Tonga, , Fiji, this symbol of prestige. In the 1980s and 90s in nineteenth century and earlier to the makeshift tools of the her designs relate to this history, not through the tools she Tuvalu and Kiribati, their largest populations live in Tāmaki Aotearoa had a resurgence; the associations of tā moko with twentieth century, to the modern tattoo gun and now back chooses to employ.3 Makaurau, . Samoan language is the second most gangs and disaffected youth began to dissipate and there was to the uhi. Paama-Pengelly prefers to use the tattoo gun A history of the handmade object in Aotearoa needs spoken language in Tāmaki Makaurau, and there are more renewed interest in the way tā moko could represent an to apply tā moko because of its ability to give fine, distinct to start with Māori, but has to account for the many other Cook Islanders, Niueans and Tokelauans living in Aotearoa individual’s connections to their tupuna, as well as asserting lines, but she is aware that some tohunga tā moko are island groups who also call Aotearoa home. Approximately than in their homelands. 4

Kauae tehe Māori term for a facial individual attained through Uhi Māori tool, sometimes described Hapū Māori sub-tribe, clan; hapū Tupuna [tūpuna — plural] Māori carver responsible for supervising general term for a tattooist or Kōwhaiwhai Māori term for painted tattoo worn only by women; this is whakapapa and can be enhanced as a chisel, used to apply an incised have frequently been the term for ancestor or grandparent. all the experts working on a meeting tattooists but does not infer status or patterns applied to the rafters and commonly applied to the kauae or through actions that lead to success. moko. commissioning group for meeting Tikanga Māori cultural practices house or large carving project. expertise. ridgepole in the meeting house; most chin. Inanimate objects and places can Whakapapa Māori term for houses and other major artistic and ways of behaving; the rules that Tohunga tā moko Māori term for Toi Māori Māori term for the kōwhaiwhai are based on the koru Mana Māori term that denotes also have mana. genealogy, a system of understanding projects. Hapū also means to be govern society. expert tattooist. different practices of making in and the pītau (a curving stalk with a pregnant. bulb on the end) and the kape (a ancestral prestige, authority, Tā moko Māori term for facial and relationships between people, and Tohunga whakairo Māori term for Kaitāmoko Māori term used to Māori society. In contemporary usage crescent with a line of evenly placed empowerment and influence and is body tattoo; ‘tā’ refers to the tapping between people and the natural Iwi Māori tribe, people, descent expert carver; ‘tohunga’ is a cultural describe those who practice tā moko; ‘toi’ has come to represent all circles). often linked to the term ‘tapu’, which action used in the historical method world; whakapapa is the web of group; often refers to a large group expert, and ‘whakairo’ is to ornament the prefix ‘kai’ relates to the action of practices that are related to the relates to sacredness. Mana is an of tattoo, and ‘moko’ are the patterns connections between people and the of Māori who can trace their descent or decorate. In contemporary usage, a person and ‘tā moko’ refers to facial visual arts. intangible force that imbues the applied to the body. world around them, stretching right from a common ancestor or the tohunga whakairo is the head and body tattoo. Kaitāmoko is a spiritual power and status of an back to the beginnings of the universe. migration canoe.

8 9 This chapter opens with Pati Solomona Tyrell’s moving image artwork Fāgogo, a cyclical journey whose opening scene is the burning of ‘effigies’ in Tonga.1 Three figures emerge from the darkness, slowly moving forward to perform a tau`olunga, emphasised by the slow and graceful movements of the body, enhanced by the individually handmade components of their Craft teunga tau`olunga. and island nations 1 008 Pati Solomona Tyrell’s costumes and adornments used in Fāgogo were made using traditional and modern materials. On the head of each dancer is a helu tu`u, a decorative comb handcrafted with wooden skewers for the base and coconut midribs for the finer details. Each helu tu`u has red plastic pearls in a variety of designs unique to each performer.

Fāgogo starts with afi, fire in Tongan, as the process of death, and bodies, the fluidity of our genders and sexualities.4 the mourning but also the celebration of new beginnings. The The performer wears a flowing, elegant costume in the film then moves into te kore, Māori for the void. The screen is luminescent colours of pāua shells, and an `ei katu with momentarily black; the subtle rustling of the afi segues into blue flowers that cascade down the sides of the dancer’s the sound of breathing, then of the haunting and beautiful face, further evoking the moana. A voiceover recites pūtōrino, a wooden instrument that has attributes of a a quote by the former head of state of Sāmoa, Tui Atua trumpet and a flute, selected by Tyrell because it has te kōkiri Tupua Tamasese Efi: o tāne, a male voice and te wai o te hine, a female voice.2 I am not an individual; I am an integral part of the As we sit in te kore, eyes appear that reveal themselves cosmos. I share divinity with my ancestors, the land, to be the obsidian teeth of Hinenuitepō, the Māori goddess of the seas and the skies. I am not an individual, because death and receiver of our souls when we die. A figure of dust I share a ‘tofi’ (an inheritance) with my family, my emerges, doubled and mirrored to articulate the wairua, village and my nation. I belong to my family and my spirit, manifesting the breath of new life — hence the title family belongs to me. I belong to my village and my of this section of the work: ‘Tā’, to breathe. The figure begins village belongs to me. I belong to my nation and my to shake, reflecting the combustion of energy and matter nation belongs to me. This is the essence of my sense creating the universe, and then comes to a halt. of belonging.5 The film then moves to `ele`ele, dirt — soil or land in Samoan — where the combustion of energy and matter The film concludes in Fiji with wai, which also means water initiates the formation of earth. After a moment of black, in Fijian. Here the viewer has a brief but powerful encounter whispers in the Samoan language can be heard, giving with a female figure, a kalou or god/goddess. She stands salutations to the nine heavens of Tagaloa3 — a chant used tall and upright, looking directly at the viewer, and as the at the funeral of a matai or chief. The scene is rich with camera moves towards her, her arms move from her side oratory and the handmade adornments and garments worn and are clasped in front of her chest. The figure embodies by tulāfale. The seed is planted in `ele`ele and this moves Indigenous Fijian architecture in the form of a bure kalou. beautifully into kelekele, which means dirt, soil or land in This short section of the film focuses on returning to Niuean. ‘Kelekele’ is a dance piece that is the manifestation Burotu, to Indigenous spiritual practices and the restoring of the growth of the seed or figure. The choreography is a of matriarchal and feminine energies. It is said that Burotu celebration of the self, the feminine, the divine and growth. or Pulotu6 is an ancestral homeland and afterworld of peoples The dancer’s costume is made of lautī skilfully constructed from some of the islands of Moana Oceania, located to make ornaments for the waist, forearms, calves and head. somewhere in the of Fiji.7 Kelekele becomes a continuation of the creation and Fāgogo is a work made in Aotearoa but it is based on the fertilisation of the earth. Samoan cultural practice of fāgogo. Described as ‘ferreting Next comes wai, water in some of the Cook Island dialects, out meaning and substance’, fāgogo is a way of telling in a performance that expresses ideas of the moana or ocean stories so that a specific message is conveyed to the as a connector of all our islands, the fluidity in our movement audience by the ways in which the elements of the story

Tau`olunga Tongan dance said to Tulāfale Samoan orator; a talking Kalou Fijian gods/goddesses. Some Pulotu Tongan for ancestral have been originated in the Samoan chief. They are custodians of family, of these gods and goddesses are: part homeland and afterworld of Moana- tau`aluga that is usually performed village and district oral histories of ancient Fijian myths and legends; nui, that is, where one comes from by one or a group of female dancers. and directors of its functions and referred to when discussing places and where one’s soul returns when Teunga tau`olunga Tongan term for protocols and are the Spokesperson names and totems; and part of they die. It is the ancient hub where a dance costume usually comprised of a family, village or district. Fijian migration stories. Well known refined knowledge and skills are of many and different components Lautī Niuean name for fresh Fijian gods are Degei (Serpent God), stored in the form of performance, for male and female dancers. green leaves of the tī tree. Dakuwaqa (Shark God) and material and fine arts. Daucina (God of Light). Matai Samoan for the titled head or `Ei katu Cook Islands name for a Fāgogo Sāmoan for oral discourse; chief of a Samoan extended family head garland or ‘crown’ that is made Bure Kalou Fijian name a tale intermingled with song and with the responsibility and to suit the occasion or celebration. for spirit house. chanting. Fāgogo is a way of telling leadership of the village and Considered the finishing touch to Burotu Fijian name for stories so that a specific message is extended community. one’s outfit, it can be made from ancestral homeland. conveyed to the audience by the ways colourful, plain, natural or synthetic in which the elements of the story flowers or shells. are assembled and presented. 008

20 Craft and island nations 21 009 The Fijian bure kalou served as the houses of bete (hereditary priests) who are conduits or the mouthpieces of kalou (gods). Located atop a The Ancestors mound, bure kalou were the most imposing dwellings in a village. The of the Arts higher they stood, the closer they Tēvita `Ō Ka`ili brought the bete and their prayers to the gods. Art is a central thread of culture — 010 The rattling sound of the tu`i ipu and some cultures worship the is used by Samoan fishermen when hunting naiufi or sharks, as part of creators of the arts. In Moana-nui the rituals that mark the hunter’s (), originators of an art respect for the sacredness of their form are often elevated into deities. prey. Ancestors were deified due to their great achievements in the arts, and are still revered today within the pantheon of Moana-nui societies. In Tonga, `otua are deified ancestors (similar to the ancestors or gods known in Māori tradition as atua). `Otua are linked to the three principal genres of Tongan arts: tufunga, material arts; faiva, performing arts; and nimamea`a, fine arts.[i] The tufunga is the Tongan equivalent of the Māori tohunga (expert, priest, or healer). In Tongan tradition, these art forms are associated with the deified ancestors Hikule`o, Tangaloa, Maui and Hina. The goddess Hikule`o is known primarily in Tonga and Sāmoa. She is the chiefess of the legendary island of Pulotu — Hawaiki and Pulotu are the two primary ancestral homelands of Moana-nui, and Pulotu was the ancient hub for the art of poetry, music and performance. Pulotu is also the name for a composer of art. Specifically, the 009 010 term is used for the art of pulotu 011 fa`u (composing of poetic lyrics), pulotu hiva/fasi (composing of music) and pulotu haka (choreography). In Tonga, when an artist attains all 8 are assembled and presented. As the primary storyteller Fāgogo plays a key role in the Indigenous knowledge and three areas of composition, they javelin-throwing originated with This artform was closely linked to behind Fāgogo, Tyrell demonstrates the potential of fāgogo practice of tala tu`umumusu, the ‘culture of whispers’ Samoan emerge as a punake, a master the Tangaloa clan. faiva faifolau, the performance art as a living practice that draws on knowledges and custodians engage in when passing on sacred knowledge. One poet-composer-choreographer.[ii] Tangaloa Tufunga (Tangaloa the of navigation, and faiva toutai, the practices handed down from the past. Although fāgogo such fāgogo places emphasis on the important relationship In Tongan cosmogony, Tangaloa Master Artist) was the patron of performance art of fishing. Maui `Eiki is the younger sibling of the arts in Tonga, and carpenters `Atalanga was famous for his is a specifically Samoan way of transmitting knowledge, between humans and animals with the story remembered in Hikule`o and the elder brother of were called the Children of Tangaloa mastery of faiva fa`a, the different elements in Tyrell’s work pay homage to the the tala tu`umumusu about Pupu Luki, the head fisherman Maui and Hina. He is recognised Tufunga.[iii] He had an art workshop performance art of cultivating Indigenous knowledge systems and histories of Tonga, who went fishing for naiufi, the shark: throughout Moana-nui as Tangaroa, in Langi, the Sky World, where he crops. He was a master cultivator Aotearoa, Cook Islands, Niue and Fiji. Tagaloa, Ta`aroa, and Kanaloa. In created all his artwork. He also had of `ufi (yams), talo (taro) and kumala One of the custodian whispers is that when Pupu Fāgogo demonstrates the holistic and collective aspects of Tonga and Sāmoa, he is the god of a toki, an adze, which he used to (sweet potatoes). Maui Motu`a, the went fishing for naiufi (shark) the village would get creation, whereas in Hawai`i and create art. In the creation tale of senior Maui, was the master of faiva Indigenous Moana Oceania cultures and practices: the film excited at the prospect of a good catch. Prayer vigils Tahiti, he is the god of the sea. the first Tongan island, Tangaloa toloafi, the performance art of is circular and looped; it is achieved as a collaboration with would be held by his family during the night to ask Tangaloa `Eitumātupu`a is the Tufunga threw down from Langi making fire, and faiva fei`umu, the all the performers and makers involved; and the research, divine father of `Aho`eitu, the first shavings from his workshop to performance art of cooking in an the gods for protection over Pupu and his companion. writing, choreography, styling and making emerge from these Tu`i Tonga (king of Tonga). All the create the first island of `Ata. underground oven. His grandson, Fishing was not perceived as an exercise in luring, interactions.9 The collaborative approach and the production royal and chiefly families of Tonga Like Pulotu, Langi was a realm Maui Kisikisi, learned the art of fire- trapping and killing mercilessly, but of inviting the trace their genealogical lines and of the gods and certain arts. making from him. Maui Kisikisi, like of each part of this artwork goes beyond what is handmade, fish to honour the village chief’s mana by being an mana to Tangaloa. Tangaloa Perhaps the most famous of all the sons of Tangaloa `Eitumātupu`a, such as the adornments and garments; rather it extends equal adversary and then ultimately by gifting himself `Eitumātupu`a was also the first the deities is Maui. In Tonga, Maui also engaged in the art of javelin- to what is better described as human-made elements such person to engage in faiva heu lupe, `Atalanga was the father of Maui throwing. to the chief to help bolster or sustain the chief’s status. as the composition of poetry that is spoken or sung, and the the performance art of pigeon- Kisikisi or Maui Fusifonua, Maui Hina, like Maui, is well known This is evidenced in the honorific term for sacred fish, choreography that moves the performers’ bodies. snaring. His divine sons were among the Fisher of Land. Maui Kisikisi throughout Moana-nui. She is Hina, the first athletes to participate in is celebrated in Māori tradition Sina, Hine or Ina. In Māori tradition, faiva sika`ulutoa, the performance as Māui-tikitiki-a-taranga. He was Hina appears as Hine. For example, Tala tu`umumusu Samoan word knowledge softly into the ears of meaning to whisper sacred those specially chosen. art of javelin-throwing. It is likely a master of faiva fusifonua, the Hinemoana is the Māori goddess of that the arts of pigeon-snaring and performance art of fishing up land. the ocean. In Tonga, Hina is the

22 Craft and island nations 23 011 Tangaloa Tufunga (Tangaloa the master artist) appears to be the first deity to use a toki (adze).

012 This carving is of the Tongan goddess Hikule`o is the ruler of Pulotu, the Tongan ancestral homeland and the centre for the art of composing (pulotu) poetry, music and performance.

013 The pe`a, traditional Samoan tatau practised by tufuga tātatau (master tattooist).

Notes [i] `Okusitino Māhina, ‘Tā, Vā, and Moana: Temporality, spatiality, and indigeneity’, Pacific Studies, vol. 33, no. 2/3, 2010, pp. 168–202. [ii] `Okusitino Māhina, ‘Tatau, Potupotutatau, and Mālie: A realist reflection on the symmetry, harmony and beauty of Queen Salote’s poetry’, in Ian Campbell and Eve Coxon (eds), Polynesian Paradox: Essays in honour of Futa Helu, Institute of Pacific Studies, University of South Pacific, Suva, 2005, pp. 168–83. 013 [iii] Edward W Gifford,Tongan Society, Bernice P Bishop Museum, Honolulu, 1929. Further reading Hau‘ofa, Epeli, Pasts to Remember: We are the ocean: Selected works, University of Hawai‘i Press, Honolulu, which is tamasoalii (tama soa meaning aide to; couple of hours until the naiufi is tired out and is pulled 2008, pp. 60–79. ali`i meaning chiefs): God Tagaloa’s gift was for these in and killed with a blow to its head using a club. There is Helu, ‘I Futa, ‘South Pacific sacred fish to become aide to the chief. These sacred celebration and gratitude afterwards, expressed through 012 Mythology: Critical essays: Cultural perspectives from the South Seas’, fish enjoy special status and are entitled to the rituals rituals and acknowledgement of the sacrifice made by the The Journal of Pacific History, of respect befitting a person of paramount importance. naiufi, as mānaia of the sea, and the successful catch made Canberra, Australia, 1999, When fishermen speak to the naiufi in chiefly language, by Pupu, as mānaia of the land. This includes covering pp. 251–60. their special status as tamasoalii is acknowledged. the naiufi with an `ie tōga when it is brought to shore — Māhina, ‘Okusitino, ‘Oceanic 10 sister of Maui Kisikisi. She is the art of shark-catching. Today, Mythology’, in Janet Parker and Julie The naiufi are thus considered more than just food. an act of respect — and following certain rituals and goddess of the moon, tapa (barkcloth) shark-catchers still perform faiva Stanton (eds), Mythology: Myths, protocols in its cooking and preparation to reflect the legends, and fantasies, Global Book The fāgogo, as remembered and told by the tala tu`umumusu, and sharks. The moon is her abode laulau, the art of chanting, to Hina naiufi’s sacredness. Publishing, Australia, 2003, then explains the details of the fishing trip: the tools used, and she beats her tapa on the moon when they engage in a shark- pp. 374–81. as the master artist of nimamea`a catching expedition. Even, the pōvai such as tu`i ipu or tu`i malie, a rattle made of coconut shells Only men wearing a pe`a (traditional male tattoo) Māhina, ‘Okusitino, ‘The Poetics koka`anga, the fine art of tapa- (club) that is used in faiva no`o`anga of Tongan Traditional History: attached to an orange-tree stick that is shaken to let the are entitled to prepare, cook and serve the naiufi. They making. Women tapa-makers perform is known as Kali `o Hina (Headrest Tala-ē-Fonua: An ecology-centred naiufi or shark know where they are; the chant to address must wear garlands of flowers around the neck, a skirt a sacred ritual to Hina during the of Hina) or Paletu`a. concept of culture and history’, The and acknowledge tamasoali`i. And when the naiufi is close of tī leaves around the waist, and have tauseisei or a process of tapa-making. Hina is also Deities who are linked with Journal of Pacific History, vol. 23, the master of faiva mata māhina, the the arts are immensely important no. 1, 1993, pp. 109–21. enough a struggle takes place on the water that lasts a flower behind each ear. This dress code marked the performance art of moon because their mythical stories reveal About the author observation, and the Moana-nui the deep . In addition, Tēvita `Ō Ka`ili is Tongan and Mānaia Samoan head of the `Ie tōga Samoan term for fine or items for ceremonial dress. it is also in the genealogy of the moon calendar originated from Hina. they remind us that art is sacred an associate professor of cultural fa`ataulele`a, the son of a high chief, or mat(s), the highest ranking and The value of an `ie tōga is in the maker and the name of the `ie tōga. Last of all, Hina is the goddess of and spiritual, and that humans have anthropology at Brigham Young the holder of the position of ‘head’. It most finely made. They are used preparation and qualities of the faiva no`o`anga, the performance a duty to care and support the arts. University — Hawai`i. also means attractive, beauty or smart. as cultural gifts for presentation materials used for its production;

24 Craft and island nations 25 134 This very New Zealand scene by -based Chinese settler William Ah Gee was made around 1905. Carved from tōtara, the landscape features the iconic cone of Mount Taranaki, behind a and whare whakairo set amongst native bush.

135 This model of a cathedral was constructed in kauri gum by Mr A Addis. Piecing the model together took Mr Addis ten years, and he finally completed the project in 1896. More than six hundred pieces of gum were fashioned to build the cathedral.

134

135

work as an ornamental carver and cabinetmaker, working The ratio was increased in 1888 from ten to 100 tons and, using a kerosene rag or the palm of the hand. Andrew There were plenty of handmaking skills required on from the premises of Elijah Bythell, a successful builder and in 1896, to one passenger per 200 tons; and the poll tax was Rintoul, a Scotsman who arrived in 1862 and farmed at the gumfields. Those who were based in one place for a wood merchant and, later, mayor of Blenheim. They first met raised to £100.41 Huarau in Northland, carved a set of seashells, perfectly reasonable period of time, or who had a wife or family, on the goldfields in Ballarat, Victoria, where Ah Gee made In 1906, a decade or so after Ah Gee had returned to spherical balls, a cross of his own design, and beads that would build a sod cottage with a chimney braced with heavy furniture for the miu — buildings where offerings were Wellington, a newspaper article captured the hostility he drilled with a homemade gimlet so they could be strung stakes, and sod walls (dug with the gumdigger’s spade) made to the ancestors in Chinese settlements. He carved towards Chinese craftspeople when it reported: ‘The other and worn. The most elaborate objects made from kauri gum about three or four feet high, with a high-pitched roof made ecclesiastical objects, including a wooden-eagle lectern for day a story went round that John Chinaman had cut into the included a model cathedral, 17.5 inches in height, constructed of mānuka tea-tree poles and thatched with nīkau palm or the Church of the Nativity in 1890, along with a tōtara pulpit, furniture trade in Wellington, and would monopolise it and from over 600 individual pieces of gum that were heated raupō leaves or a tent fly, and a floor of beaten earth. Some sanctuary chair and kneeling stool; a font in Ōamaru stone turn it as yellow as the furniture trade in Sydney, or the fruit after being carved so they would adhere to each other. It dwellings had roofs made of grain sacks that were unpicked for St Mary’s Church in Blenheim; and household furniture, trade in our own city.’ To the relief of citizens, no doubt, the took the maker, Mr Addis, more than ten years to make and opened up to their full size and then stitched together fire surrounds, gravestones, picture frames and relief scenes. article concluded: ‘But so far as can be discovered, the only in his leisure hours, and was completed in 1896. with string and a bag needle to make a tent-like cover that Ah Gee was respected and praised for his work, but even approach to a Chinese furniture-maker in this city is one Another favourite craft activity using kauri gum was was stretched over the ceiling poles. All that was required he didn’t escape the rising tide of ill feeling among the ancient Celestial who does carving, and who is a specialist, the production of ‘kauri silk’, which mimicked a tress of was readily available tools and materials, such as a gum public about the presence of Chinese people in Aotearoa, and who cannot be said to interfere to any profound extent silky blond hair. A nice specimen of gum weighing about spade, an axe, a hammer, nails, a knife, some string and a institutionalised in the Chinese Immigrants Act of 1881, with the established trade of white workers.’42 two pounds, pale and clear with no ruptures or defects, bag needle, and harakeke cord for binding and lashing. The which established a poll tax on Chinese immigrants. The would be heated in an old metal frypan or on a metal plate on furniture was rough and rudimentary: bunks were a frame Act was modelled on legislation passed by the Australian The gumdiggers who worked the kauri gumfields in a hot range. As the surface melted, it would be drawn out to made of four mānuka stakes with sacking stretched over it, state of Victoria in 1855, which arose out of an inter- Northland in the late nineteenth century were mainly arm’s length or further, producing beautiful drawn fibres that supported on four forked branches hammered into the colonial conference in January 1881 in Sydney, at which Dalmatians. Not all were specifically craftspeople, but they were collected and placed on a nearby surface. The process ground, and the pillow was a flour bag stuffed with spare members argued for a consistent approach in the colonies would often turn their hand to carving gum in their spare would continue until three generous bundles of strands had clothes. Seats and cupboards were fashioned from empty to Chinese immigrants, who were viewed as undesirable time. Typically a carver would produce hearts, crosses and been produced, which were then plaited while warm and tied packing cases, and a table from old boards and mānuka and unwelcome. The Chinese Immigrants Act imposed anchors, although some made more complex forms. Carving with ribbon.43 tea-tree stakes.44 a £10 poll tax to be paid by every Chinese person entering required a great deal of patience and skill: a slip of the knife Kauri Māori name for Agathis wood was used for carving and its Aotearoa. It also put in place a one-to-ten passenger-to- could ruin hours of work. Elaborate carvings of a head, for australis, New Zealand’s largest gum was burnt to produce a dye used tonnage restriction, which meant that a 100-ton vessel example, could take as long as six months to complete. Once native tree, found only in the in tattooing. could bring only ten Chinese passengers into the country. it was completed, a carving was sanded and then polished northern . Kauri

134 Craft and the authentic 135 138 This selection of objects was 139 donated to Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira by James Burton Turner in 1921 and at the time represented one of the most comprehensive collections of Fijian and Moana Oceania material in Aotearoa. On the left is an ike or Tongan bark cloth beater used in the production of masi or bark cloth. On the right is a civa vonovono or breastplate from Fiji and is inlaid with a four-pointed kalokalo or star design and includes materials such as sui ni tovuto or whale bone and civa or mother of pearl.

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scientific curiosity and a quasi-professional interest in were given, especially to the governor, as a way of cementing the objects and cultural practices of Fijian people. As von diplomatic relationships. And in turn these were increasingly Hügel wrote in 1875: being understood and displayed as ethnological specimens that illustrated a culture, rather than as sensational curios.50 A few scattered native weapons or implements might In 1921 the annual report for the Auckland Institute and certainly be found in settlers’ houses, but they were Museum acknowledged a generous gift of a ‘superb collection kept as ‘curios’, often for the sake of some sensational of Fijian and Polynesian ethnological specimens’ accumulated history which the owner could attach to them. Every by James Burton Turner from Auckland, who had moved to dish was a cannibal dish, every club had been the Fiji in 1870 and worked there for many years. The museum instrument of some atrocious murder, and every stain noted that Turner’s collection ‘contains sets of nearly all on either was caused by blood. There were some 50,000 the articles necessary to fully illustrate the manners and 139 in the islands at the time I landed and about customs of the ancient Fijian’, and celebrated the gift as an 3000 whites, but the 50,000 might have been so many extension to the existing collections that would ‘render the cabbages for anything their white fellow creatures museum preeminent as the centre for the study of cared to know of them, their customs or their history.49 ’.51 It was an exceptional time for collecting in Fiji. The presence Museums were closely tied to these developments in the of the colonial government and a wave of conversion to emerging field of anthropology. In the late nineteenth century Christianity shifted the ways in which Fijian chiefs were two different philosophies changed display strategies in interacting with the European officials. Important items Aotearoa museums. One philosophy was concerned with

138 Craft and the authentic 139 He began collaborating with ceramicist Len Castle, decorating Castle’s pots. Both shared a passion for Asian arts and local clays, and Castle learned about Bauhaus design and asymmetrical composition from Schoon, who also stoked Castle’s interest in geothermal imagery. Through Castle, Schoon met Barry Brickell and another circle of ceramic artists. carving fascinated Schoon. His only book, Country (1973), dealt with the subject. In 1968 he made forays into carving his own designs, initially deconstructed, in Bauhaus fashion, from traditional Māori motifs. This gained him employment with the Westland Greenstone Company in Hokitika in 1969, though his insistence on innovation over commercially approved patterns was a source of friction. His pounamu found favour with some Māori, notably Māta Hirini of the Maori Women’s Welfare League, and he exhibited pieces at New Vision

gallery in Auckland. In Hokitika he 247 A self-portrait by Theo Schoon mentored carver Kelvyn Anderson featuring gourds he had grown and and became close friends with decorated, and taken by the artist at ceramicist Yvonne Rust, bonding his Arch Hill home, Auckland, in 1960. over cats and local clays. 248 A Theo Schoon stoneware dish Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, decorated with an embossed pattern after a stint in Bali with potter Brent made with plaster stamps. Hesselyn, Schoon worked obsessively Notes with hue (gourds), importing calabash [i] This controversial programme of seeds, growing the plants and carving transformation was brought about the gourds at his house in Arch Hill, shortly before Schoon’s arrival by Auckland. This was partly inspired by Jacob ‘Jac’ Jongert (1883–1942), his study with Māori master carver graphic designer at the Van Nelle Pineamine Taiapa in 1961. Some tobacco factory and Leerdam Glasfabriek glassworks, and Piet gourds were exhibited at New Vision, Zwart (1885–1977), a designer and but few survive. His efforts earned typographer of strongly Bauhaus him an invitation (the only non-Māori leanings. The academy is now called given that honour) to participate in the Willem de Kooning Academy the Ngaruawahia Centennial at after its most celebrated alumnus. Tūrangawaewae in 1974. [ii] Steve Rumsey and Theo Schoon, Later in life Schoon stayed with ‘Theo Schoon: My work with plaster ceramicist Helen Mason. Debilitated by stamps’, New Zealand Potter, vol. 27, emphysema, he returned to stamping no. 2, 1985, p. 20. pots, this time in collaboration with [iii] Theo Schoon, letter to Francisca Steve Rumsey, before moving to Mayer, 24 November 1967, MS 61, 2, Sydney, Australia, where he died. p. 7, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington. Schoon’s legacy is a complex one, primarily of mentorship. He brought Further reading energy and sophistication through Dunn, Michael, ‘The Art of Theo Asian and European aesthetics Schoon’, Art New Zealand, no. 25, to New Zealand’s largely anglophile Spring 1982. craft community. He encouraged craft Skinner, Damian, ‘Theo Schoon’s artists to innovate in design and interaction with aspects of Maori art’, see themselves in the same terms MA thesis, , as fine artists. He emphasised the 1996. importance of local materials, Wood, Andrew Paul, ‘Double Vision: popularised awareness of Māori visual Redressing Theo Schoon’s absence culture and encouraged Māori artists from history’, MA thesis, , 2003. to experiment with modernism. His efforts helped lay the groundwork About the author for innovative New Zealand craft for Andrew Paul Wood is an art writer 248 the rest of the century. and independent cultural historian.

242 Craft and the modern 243 The Coconut Shell As Art Object John Perry

The first contact with a coconut for the average Pākehā in mid-twentieth century New Zealand was probably at the coconut shy at an A&P show: if you managed to dislodge one, you took it home and attacked it with a hammer and devoured the soft, exotic-tasting interior. The broken shell went into the rubbish bin. The that found their way across the seas to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century were crosscultural ambassadors, powerful symbols of exotica. The shells were carefully carved, decorated and often embellished with precious metals. The natural cup shape did not go unnoticed, and many were used in special religious situations. In the Antipodes there is plentiful evidence that the coconut shell has been employed in a Pacific sense by Indigenous communities. So it is here that the two quite distinct strands — the Indigenous or Pacific strand, which we will refer to as the ‘Insider’ strand, and the non-Indigenous or ‘Outsider’ strand — come together. The biggest problem is that the raw material has needed to shake off the notion that it is a hard, brittle and somewhat useless outer skin. Over the years I have collected material culture from throughout the South Pacific and beyond, in a variety of local and exotic materials. Along with natural fibres, seashell and turtleshell, coconut shell constitutes the bulk of my collection. The coconut shell can be approached in two completely different ways: by cutting, reassembling and adding other materials, such as seashells, paint and fibre, or by retaining original forms and cutting, drilling and engraving the surface. The first method is clearly favoured by ‘Insider’ communities, while the other, more subtractive methodologies are more often favoured by ‘Outsider’ communities. Perhaps the most interesting and earliest example of the second approach is evident in a large- format black-and-white photograph taken in the middle of the twentieth century of a group of coconut shell souvenirs. They feature and other avian and botanical motifs that have been fretworked out of cut and polished coconut shell. This assemblage of seven standing forms 203

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