A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngato Porou Carving, 1830-1930
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A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngato Porou Carving, 1830-1930
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| ISBN-13: | 9781775587439 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Auckland University Press |
| Publication date: | 03/21/2016 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 304 |
| File size: | 34 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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A Whakapapa of Tradition
100 Years of Ngati Porou Carving, 1830â"1930
By Ngarino Ellis, Natalie Robertson
Auckland University Press
Copyright © 2016 Ngarino EllisAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-86940-737-7
CHAPTER 1
Iwirakau Visual Culture to 1830
Our rich oral history demonstrates the ongoing importance of carving and carvers on the East Coast. The story of Ruatepupuke is a critical narrative for Ngati Porou and tells us that carving first came to us from another realm. The story begins with Te Manu-Hauturuki, the son of Ruatepupuke, who was out on the ocean one day when Tangaroa, God of the Sea, became angry with him and carried him down to his house, Hui-te-ananui, which was under the sea. Ruatepupuke started to worry about his son, and began searching for him. When he found him, Te Manu-Hauturuki had been transformed into the tekoteko (figurehead, see Fig. 6) of Tangaroa's house. Incensed, Ruatepupuke killed those belonging to Tangaroa's house, grabbed his son and some of the exterior carvings from the house, and fled home. In doing so he not only avenged the kidnapping of his son, but also brought the knowledge of carving to this world – which has been passed down to the present generation'.
In this narrative Tangaroa's house is described as being fully carved on the interior, and outside in the porch poupou. The carvings inside could talk to one another while those in the porch were silent. Thus, as Ruatepupuke took only external poupou, carving today is silent. Once home, Ruatepupuke kept the carvings for his children and grandchildren 'to admire'. This work later became the prototype for all carving.
Further on in the whakapapa is the narrative of Ngae (also known as Kae) of the broken tooth. He and his six brothers lived at Reporua in a carved house named Te Kikihi Taihaki. Surviving a fishing accident that killed his brothers, Ngae came ashore at the chief Tinirau's village. There he borrowed Tutunui, the chief's pet whale, so he could return home. But once he was safely back his greed made him beach the whale, resulting in its death. Ngae's people then cut up the whale and cooked him in a hangi (earth oven). The smell of this feast soon reached Tinirau who, bereft, sent a group to find Ngae. The group couldn't find him among the people at Reporua so they made everyone laugh, whereupon they recognised Ngae from his broken tooth. Tinirau's group then set about seeking utu (revenge, reciprocity). They recited karakia to make the people fall asleep. Later they transported the whare (house) to Tinirau's village with Ngae and his people asleep inside. When Ngae awoke he was quickly killed and eaten in revenge for killing the whale, and Tinirau kept Ngae's carved house as further payment for the death.
In summarising the place of carving in such oral traditions, Walker comments:
Clearly, in myths and legends, chiefs had superior houses. The basic architectural elements of the chief's house are cited in the stories. These included interior fireplaces, the doorway in the front wall, the porch, which is such a distinctive feature of meeting-house design, the bargeboards surmounted by the carved human figure of a tekoteko, the poupou, which are a feature of interior walls as both structural and decorative pillars, and the poutokomanawa, the centre-post supporting the ridgepole.
Mohi Turei mentions the hapu Ngati Nua who were renowned as canoe carvers. They are known to have lived near the mouth of the Waiapu and built a waka taua named Te Ruru-a-Tarapikau, which was used by the chief Kakatarau in the battle of Toka-a-Kuku in 1836. Wananga Te Ariki Walker also identifies Umuariki from Tuparoa as a well-respected warrior and tohunga tarai waka. He is known to have carved a waka for Tu-te-rangi-whiu at O-kau-whare-toa in Kawakawa (Te Araroa).
Written accounts also reveal evidence of East Coast carving. An unnamed manuscript dating to the 1870s, possibly written by Mokena Romio, traces the journey of the carving from Ruatepupuke through to Hingangaroa:
This man, Hingangaroa, was born, grew, and matured. The houseposts brought by Ruatepupuke were shown to him. Later, he erected a house and attached the houseposts to it. Preserved in that house were the models of the manaia, taowaru and many other patterns. When that house was completed Hingangaroa named it Rawheoro [Slow Sun or Rumbling Day]. This house stood at Tolaga Bay, that is, at Mangaheia. The specific place where this house stood was at Mangakuku but it is within the boundaries of the Mangaheia Block. The foundation of this house is still there.
This description tells us several things. First, we are told that Hingangaroa learnt carving from copying the poupou brought from Tangaroa's house. His teacher is not named, which suggests that his whakapapa gave him innate carving skills. Secondly, these poupou were used as templates for later carvings, acting as an encyclopedia of patterns and designs. Thirdly, the account records the practice of naming houses after they were completed. And lastly, the foundations of Hingangaroa's whare were still evident many centuries later.
Through Hingangaroa there is a transition from the distant past to the present, as 'myth now enters the realm of actual tradition'. In addition to Romio's narrative, there is oral evidence that carving may have arrived in the Uawa area from Hawaiki on the waka Tere Anini. On board was Hingangaroa's ancestor Rongomaituaho who is remembered for bringing with him 'various exemplars of carving, adzes and the carvings from the house of Tangaroa'. In this particular story the knowledge of carving originates in the Pacific.
Hingangaroa's wife Iranui was familiar with a range of carving techniques. This narrative is recounted by Apirana Ngata:
Hingangaroa was a great artist, carver and builder. He was an expert in the building of canoes. It was this that led him and his wife Iranui to visit [her brother] Kahungunu in the Whakaki district of Wairoa. Iranui, then in child, saw Kahungunu and his people finishing the body of a canoe and fixing the prow and stern pieces by tying them on by straight joints, tuporo haumi. A canoe built in this way depended largely on the rauawa or side boards for strength and rigidity. She told of her husband, who was an expert in such matters and showed her brother the new way of dovetailing the pieces in. She effectually if not modestly illustrated what she meant by lying down and placing her brother's legs each side of her own. Hingangaroa was invited to Whakaki and there demonstrated the art of joining haumi.
In another version of this narrative, Kahungunu invited Hingangaroa to supervise the construction of his new house later named Rangikahupapa at Mangakahia pa on the Mahia Peninsula. This suggests that it was Hingangaroa who was the master, or alternately that he was a master house builder, whereas Kahungunu's skills lay in building canoes.
Soon after, Hingangaroa returned to Uawa and established the whare wananga known as Rawheoro at his home at Mangakuku. The school is described in a lament written by Tuterangiwhaitiri for his son Rangiuia, which today is regarded as the main source of information about carving and its exponents in this period. Verse 6 is as follows:
Ko Te Rangi-hopukia, ko Hinehuhurutai,
Me ko Manutangirua, ko Hingangaroa.
Ka tu tona whare, Te Ra-wheorao, e;
Ka tipu te whaihanga, e hika, ki Uawa.
Ka riro te whakautu, Te Ngaio-tu-ki-Rarotonga,
Ka riro te manaia, ka riro te taowaru;
Ka taka i raro na, i a Apanui, e;
Ka puta ki Turanga, ka hangai atu koe
Ki te ao o te tonga, i patua ai koe;
Kia whakarongo mai e to tipuna papa,
E Te Matorohanga, na i!
Te Rangi-hopukia had Hinehuhurutai,
Who had Manutangirua, whose son was Hingangaroa.
He it was who established the house, Te Rawheoro,
And arts and crafts flourished, my son, at Uawa.
There came in payment the Ngaio-tu-ki-Rarotonga,
And there went in exchange the Manaia and the Taowaru,
Passing round thence to the north, Te Apanui,
Emerging at Turanga, where you will face
The clouds from the south, whence came your doom,
So shall your elder and parent hear,
Even Te Matorohanga!
Ngata makes the point that the lament gives 'the most definite and authoritative statement of the existence in the old centre, Uawa, of a school of arts and crafts'. Te Rawheoro soon became the leading whare wananga from Wharekahika down to the Wairarapa. Its physical structure was described by Mackay as being 19.21 metres long and 7.93 metres wide, with a porch on the eastern side, a fireplace in the central part and the 'holiest of Holies' space on the western side. Whare wananga taught a range of general topics, including Te Kauwae Runga (celestial knowledge) and Te Kauwae Raro (human history). Many also specialised in specific topics.
Te Rawheoro was by no means the only whare wananga along the East Coast. Others included Te Aho Matariki at Whangara, Puhikia-iti near the Cook Monument in Gisborne, Te Tuahu and Whare-korero. Ngata names three tohunga (whom he describes as 'Professors') at Te Rawheoro: Rangiuia, Tokipuanga and Mohi Ruatapu. The former was the leading tohunga, whilst Ruatapu was the priest. Through the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Te Rawheoro continued to attract students from hapu along the East Coast through to Poverty Bay and Mahia Peninsula and across to the Wairarapa. Moihi Te Matorohanga, a graduate of Te Rawheoro, ran his own whare wananga in the Wairarapa which closed around 1865. By this time knowledge was being written down by the tauira (students) into books known as 'putea whakairo'. This practice was not altogether approved of by some of the elders, but was done nevertheless, reflecting a change from te ao kohatu (world of stone) to te ao rino (world of steel).
The link from Ruatepupuke to Hingangaroa to the carvers of the nineteenth century can be traced specifically in the presence of the two motifs described in Ranguia's lament, the taowaru and the manaia. The taowaru was either a series of manaia forming a central line down a carving (as claimed by McEwen), or a type of surface decoration sometimes also known as taratara-a-kae (as claimed by Ngata) (Fig. 9). The manaia was a subsidiary figure frequently included in carvings in the role of a protector. Mead described the transmission of knowledge of carving from Ruatepupuke through to Hingangaroa as 'focused on the progressive desacrilizing of the art of carving. ... By the time of Hingangaroa, carving is considered an activity of mortal man and is no longer the preserve of gods.' Mead notes that the oral history 'reveals insights about the nature of Maori art that we would not get from an archaeological perspective': there is information about the personalities involved, as well as cultural norms and practices, some of which were passed down through the generations.
Te Wahi Ngaro
This chapter now turns to examine more closely that period of time from 1000 to 1800 which is described by Mead as 'Te Wahi Ngaro' or the lost portion, a time when the archaeological and oral records must be read together in order to shed some light on the art scene.
At the same time that Hingangaroa was settled in Uawa, the chieftainess Te Ao Kairau lived further north in the Waiapu Valley. According to Pine Taiapa, she was responsible for the erection of what he calls the first 'meeting houses' in the area, although his account suggests that these early 'whare' were actually chiefs' houses. At this time building and woodcarving 'was mostly confined to prominent hill tops until the advent of Christianity in 1832 when we find people building on lower country'. The whare of this period was described as
... [having] no eaves as the buildings were partly submerged but in the latter architectural construction introduced main supports and ridgepoles. Thus were the walls kept upright and rafters caused the making of eaves to take rain water away from the outside wall area.
This description corresponds with archaeological evidence from other parts of the North Island involving what were most probably chiefs' houses.
Te Ao Kairau's desire for carving prompted her to select her nephew Iwirakau (through her husband Tamataua) to travel to Uawa to study at Te Rawheoro to learn 'the Arts, house and canoe building, carving and scroll work'. Iwirakau (Fig. 8) had many close connections to major lines in Ngati Porou. His brother was Ngatihau, who married Te Ataakura, and their son Tuwhakairiora became the paramount warrior on the East Coast, joining many Tai Rawhiti hapu together into one group for important strategic purposes such as warfare. Ngata describes their education as an 'intensive course in wood-carving'. Iwirakau was chosen because of his studious nature and demonstration of a 'practical bent'. Travelling with him was a descendant of Hingangaroa named Tukaki from Te Whanau-a-Apanui. Together they took a beautiful cloak named Ngaio-tu-ki-Rarotonga, or 'the ngaio that grew at Rarotonga'. This cloak was 'of the finest fibre and workmanship, an heirloom which some authorities say came with the migrants from Hawaiki'.
Ngata maintains that Iwirakau added on to 'designs and styles of the Waiapu new details acquired from Uawa', which strongly suggests that there was a carving tradition in the Waiapu before Iwirakau went to Uawa. This is quite possible: oral accounts indicate that there was carving on board the waka pahi from Hawaiki, in the form of whakapakoko atua (figurines) and other decorations. Upon his return, Iwirakau would have been expected to lead carving in the Waiapu area. Even so, it is now unclear whether there are any extant carvings which can be directly attributed to him.
As with all chiefly young men, Iwirakau would have received an education in the Waiapu whare wananga named Tapere-Nui-a-Whatonga. This whare wananga had been founded by Te Whironui, captain of the Nukutere waka, around the time of the establishment of his pa at Nga Puketurua, East Cape. Later, Te Whironui's son-in-law Paikea relocated, enlarged and reopened the whare wananga, probably in response to population growth. The opening of the house was marked by special celebrations and ritual festivities. These practices – and specifically the naming of the house by an important chief – were passed down to the nineteenth century and their elaborateness indicates that only powerful chiefs such as Paikea would have been able to build, move or extend such houses. It is unknown whether Tapere-Nuia-Whatonga was carved or whether carving was taught as part of the curriculum – that Iwirakau had to study these skills at another whare wananga indicates that it was not.
By the nineteenth century students were facing a new challenge: how to amalgamate their training in whare wananga with new forms of knowledge such as literacy. A number of local men attended both the Tapere and Rawheoro whare wananga before moving on to schooling in Paihia. Raniera Kawhia of Rangitukia, for instance, who had a full moko, was the first Maori ordained by Rev. William Williams. Another student, Pita Kapiti, attended Tapere as a young man in the early nineteenth century and 'received a full traditional education' there. He later passed on the most tapu aspects of his knowledge to his protégé Rev. Mohi Turei.
By the 1860s Tapere-Nui-a-Whatonga had become a 'peripatetic school which served outside the Waiapu area, extending as far south as Wairarapa and the Bay of Plenty on the west'. This geographic reach probably reflected the movements of the teachers and pupils around the country. Other whare wananga were closing, including Te Matorohanga's in the Wairarapa, because of the increasing intrusion of European culture into Maori society. With the creation of alternate education facilities, such as the Anglican Maori boarding schools Hukarere and Te Aute in 1875 and 1854 respectively, there was a change in mindset, with communities preferring that their rangatahi (youth) learn about the Pakeha world and their language, culture and values as a strategy for survival. Tapere-Nui-a-Whatonga continued to exist until, as Pine Taiapa so eloquently puts it, 'the impact of Christianity stole its thunder'. Ngata comments:
Some of the most learned men educated under Rangiuia and Mohi [Turei] up my way joined the church as 'monita' and parsons. Mohi Turei, Raniera Kawhia, Hare Tawha are known to have been initiates of the Tapere-nui-a-Whatonga and Rawheoro. Hare Tawha was probably the most learned of the three. But he closed up like an oyster when he joined the church.
Carving styles
As we have seen, carving was taught in several whare wananga to such an extent that by the end of the eighteenth century specific carving styles had emerged. Along the East Coast four different schools of carving appeared: Te Whanau-a-Apanui (or Tukaki) at Te Kaha, Iwirakau/Tapere in the Waiapu Valley, Te Rawheoro at Uawa and Rongowhakaata at Manutuke. There was also a close relationship with the Ngati Kahungunu school. Each of them served as a school, in that there was 'a group of artists working with the influence of a single master or sharing common characteristics because they come from a particular region or town, or practise the same local style'. Each carving school was keenly aware of the others' styles. As Robert Jahnke has described their characteristics in detail already, the next section will provide only a brief synopsis, as visual and textual context for the following chapters.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A Whakapapa of Tradition by Ngarino Ellis, Natalie Robertson. Copyright © 2016 Ngarino Ellis. Excerpted by permission of Auckland University Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction: Te Ao Hurihuri o Iwirakau,One: Iwirakau Visual Culture to 1830,
Two: He Tikanga Hou: Chapels in the Waiapu, 1838–1860,
Three: Tradition and the Meeting House,
Four: Nga Tohunga Whakairo o Iwirakau,
Five: Patronage,
Six: 'Ka pu te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi': Apirana Ngata, Hone Ngatoto and the End of the Iwirakau Carving School?,
Select List of Iwirakau Meeting Houses,
Occasional Carvers of the Iwirakau School,
Glossary,
Notes,
Bibliography,
Acknowledgements,
Index,