ART on view
The Maori Art of Skin Marking
74
From the Chisel
of Mataora
By Crispin Howarth
FIG. 1 (above): Feeding funnel, kĿrere.
Muriwhenua region, North Cape, Aotearoa. Before 1793.
Wood. 9.5 x 11.2 x 13.8 cm.
Ex Chief Ko-to-ko-kee, Muriwhenua people, North Cape, New Zealand; Governor
Philip Gidley King, 1793.
South Australian Museum, Adelaide, inv. A.35469.
This kĿrere feeding funnel is one of the earliest treasures,
taonga, of Māori art in Australia. Such funnels were used to
feed high-ranking individuals a broth, known as waikĿhua,
after they had received moko, helping to prevent infection to
their now-swollen mouth or lips. The tā moko process included
tapu restrictions associated with food. As David Simmons
(1984) notes, “A chief’s head was very tapu. Cooked food
has the property of removing or diminishing tapu. If any food
touched the lips when they were still raw from tattooing, it
would remove the tapu from the work and cause it to fail.”
This particular funnel has unfi nished patterns, including the
faces of two fi gures, but has patination of wear and use. While
we know nothing of who made this kĿrere and who would
have used it, its history is connected to the kidnapping of
Tuki Tahua and Ngahuruhuru (or Te Huru-kokoti) by Captain
Hanson and crew of HMS Daedalus in April 1793.
Tahua and Ngahuruhuru were transported from their home
in the Cavalli Islands, north of the Bay of Islands, on the
request of Governor Philip Gidley King to fi nd suitable Māori
to teach settlers at the fl edgling colony at Norfolk Island about
growing and preparing fl ax, which then could be used for
ropes and sail making. When they arrived at the colony in May
1793, they could offer little to no assistance in regard to the
arts of fl ax, as Tahua was the son of a priest and Ngahuruhuru
a chiefl y warrior, neither of whom ever had any reason to learn
about fl ax. For the next several months the two men lived
amicably with Governor King until he could arrange for their
repatriation travel aboard the store ship Britannia accompanied
by King. The Britannia reached New Zealand’s North Cape in
November 1793, but foul weather limited their further travel
south to the Cavalli Islands. King met with Chief Ko-to-ko-kee
of the Muriwhenua people and asked for his guarantee of safe
passage for Tahua and Ngahuruhuru to the Cavalli Islands.
This involved the exchange of gifts between Ko-to-ko-kee
and King. The kĿrere was one of the gifts in this ceremonial
exchange to assure the last leg of Tahua and Ngahuruhuru’s
journey, and it subsequently found its way into the collection
of the South Australian Museum. It is one of the fi rst known
objects of Māori taonga to be collected after Cook’s last visit to
New Zealand in 1777.
The Maori art of ta moko, or skin
marking, has existed for centuries. Wearers of
moko (Maori tattoo) all but disappeared in the
early twentieth century, yet this body art has experienced
a resurgence in the past twenty years,
and now more Maori wear the marks of their
heritage than did in the late nineteenth century.
The National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition
Maori Markings: Ta Moko examines this unique
form of body art, documenting its practice
from the eighteenth century to the present day
through rarely known paintings, illustrations,
sculptures, and other items. The art of moko is
seen on most, if not all, traditional Maori wood
sculpture, and it is often more faithfully reproduced
upon such sculptures than by the hands of
European settlers in drawings and paintings. The
introduction of photography in the mid-nineteenth
century unsurprisingly adds signifi cantly
to our knowledge of the art of moko.
The practice of ta moko has its origins in the
Polynesian art of tatau, which is known by various
names across Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Hawai’i,
the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, and
Samoa. However, in Aotearoa (New Zealand)
the practice developed uniquely. Introduced into
Europe some 250 years ago through the voyages
of James Cook, the word tatau quickly morphed
into the “tattoo” we know in English today, referring
to the pricking and permanent inking of
skin. In ancient Aotearoa, the practice of tatau
developed into ta moko, which employs chisel
like tools (uhi) that do not prick the skin as in
many tattooing methods but was more related
to wood carving. The tiny chisels cut deeply into
the skin, often removing sections and leaving incised
grooves and ridges.
A full face of male moko is known as moko
kanohi and the female chin moko is moko kauae.
During the early nineteenth century, the right to