He Toi WhakairoThe Art of Māori Carving

Graphic Designer Toka Tamihere discusses the process of developing the design and colourways, whakairo-based visual motifs, and designing a typeface for He Toi Whakairo: The art of Māori Carving.

Commissioned for He Toi Whakairo: The Art of Maori Carving, kaiwhakairo (carver) Sam Hauwaho’s carved wooden artwork Whaka-iro reflects upon and references the meaning of the word whakairo or whaka-iro-iro – to make like a wood-boring grub.

Senior Curator Mātauranga Māori Dougal Austin discusses a hoe (paddle) carved by Master Carver Clive Fugill (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Raukawa, and Ngāti Rangiwewehi) on display as part of He Toi Whakairo: The Art of Māori Carving.

Te Papa has approximately 68 tokotoko in the collection representing all time periods. In 2021, Mātauranga Māori Curator Isaac Te Awa acquired two more. However, these ones are slightly different from the more common style.

Senior Curator Mātauranga Māori Dougal Austin discusses an unusual pare (door lintel) fragment on display as part of He Toi Whakairo: The Art of Māori Carving.

This pare was also selected to travel with the 1984 exhibition Te Maori, and then returned as part of the exhibition Te Maori: Te Hokinga Mai.

These Moriori house carvings are extremely precious in that they are the only ones that survive. Riria uncovers some of their story.

The following is an abridged version of a paper by Megan Tamati-Quennell, Curator Modern & Contemporary Māori & Indigenous Art, about Michael Parekōwhai’s He Kōrero Pūrakau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu: Story of a New Zealand river in 2018. 

Ruatepupuke II was built in Tokomaru Bay in 1880 and is an early example of East Coast carving that is unusual for its fully carved front façade and its shallow relief. Most of Ruatepupuke II has been at the Field Museum since they purchased it from the foremost German dealer, J.F.G Umlauff of Hamburg, in 1905.

After a 6 month journey from Paris, there's an emotional homecoming for this precious carved taonga (treasure). A new chapter is beginning for the magnificent waka whakairo.

While Puawai Cairns was researching Māori Gallipoli stories, she was intrigued by some special carvings the Māori Contingent made in the clay walls of the Big Sap.

Te Papa is home to many precious carved taonga (treasures), including the three-dimensional faces of the Tā Moko panel carved by Ngāti Tarāwhai master carver Tene Waitere, a master carver from Lake Rotoiti. Then Curator Arapata Hakiwai talks with James Schuster, the great-great-grandson of Tene Waitere, about the panel.

Visit three karetao-puoro (instruments that are figures too) created by artist James Webster to give karetao a voice by incorporating taonga puoro into their design. Watch the whānau of karetao in action in Tokotū (Rise Up), the story of Ranginui and Papatūānuku.

Mātauranga Māori Curator Dougal Austin reflects on some of his research into hei tiki (greenstone pendants in human form), including looking at how styles of hei tiki appear to ahere to, or are worked away from, original rectangular or wedge-shaped pieces of cut pounamu.

Mana Whenua takes you on a stirring journey that explores and celebrates Māori as tangata whenua (the indigenous people) of Aotearoa New Zealand.