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Canoe Prow
Maori, 1860
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art
“The large canoes that had attached a prow such as this were carved from one large totara tree trunk. The additional prow and stern ornaments were attached later, creating an extremely skillfully carved whole. The soft totara wood made for good carving, and the more skilled the carving, the higher the status of the owner and the vessel’s occupants. The canoe ornaments have the curvilinear style of classic Maori carving, with spiral frets and abstract figural patterns. There is no specific meaning known for the double-spiral design on this nonrectangular prow. The carved seated figure added to the end of the prow was meant to protect and watch over the canoe’s occupants and would gain mana, or power, as more successful expeditions were completed. The figure could represent an ancestor, and with this ancestral power, also mana, that could provide courage, endurance, and enterprise on the canoe’s voyage—both for the canoe and its occupants.
Canoes played an incredibly important part of Maori culture and myth. They were said to have carried the first ancestors to the islands, and were highly decorated and intricately carved to show their significance. This was because the high-status craftsmen (tohunga) were able to control and harness mana in important objects such as canoes, for which a well-carved prow held the mana. This was seen as integral during the war expeditions for which the canoe with this prow was used. There are few complete surviving examples of classic Maori war canoes (one such vessel is in the Auckland Museum in New Zealand).”
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Whale Tooth Pendant
Maori, 18th century
The British Museum
“Carved pendants, known as arei puta(rei meaning ‘whale ivory’ andputa‘hole’,) were worn by Maori men at the time of Cook’s first visit to New Zealand (1768-71). The official artist Sydney Parkinson depicted a chief’s son named Te Kuukuu from the Bay of Islands wearing such a pendant. He also wears a comb, probably of whalebone, an ear pendant - almost certainly of nephrite - and a woven flax cloak. His hair is arranged in the topknot style popular at the time, and his face is tattooed with designs typical of those used in the northern part of New Zealand. (The pen and wash portrait dated 1769 entitledPortrait of a New Zeland Man is now in the British Library, Add. MS 23920, f.54). It is believed that this rei puta was collected on Cook’s first voyage because of its similarity to such contemporary illustrations.
Characteristically, the lower part of the pendant represents a face with carved and painted eyes. Some examples include a nose and/or a mouth. The significance of these is uncertain. The pendant has a plaited neck cord which would be fastened by its loop with the toggle, made of bird bone. Rei putalater declined in popularity, as men increasingly favouredhei tiki, neck pendants in human form made from nephrite or bone.”
