75
FIG. 2 (right): Self-portrait by Hongi Hika (c. 1772–1828),
Ngāpuhi iwi.
Māori, Sydney, Australia. 1814.
Wood. H: 35 cm.
Macleay Museum, Sydney, inv. ETI.570.
This bust is one of three self-portraits created by Hongi
Hika during his fi rst visit to Sydney in the early nineteenth
century. Hika was a guest along with other rangatira and
Māori who traveled with missionary Thomas Kendall from
New Zealand and were hosted at the Paramatta farm
home of Reverend Samuel Marsden between August and
September 1814. Both Marsden and Kendall were keen
to establish the fi rst Christian mission in New Zealand and
were courting the acceptance and patronage of rangatira
including Hika.
Known by Marsden, Kendall, and others as “Shungee”
(their interpretation of Hongi), Hika is an important fi gure
in early nineteenth-century Māori history. While he is
mainly noted for his prowess as a war leader, he was also
one of the fi rst rangatira to welcome the establishment of
Christianity in New Zealand, although he never became
a Christian himself. His most enduring legacy is his great
contribution to the fi rst written version of Te Reo, the
Māori language. During Hika’s fi rst visit to Sydney, he was
described by Marsden as mild-mannered, polite, and of
“very fi ne character.” Hika took interest in agriculture and
the technologies being used in Sydney, especially carpentry,
blacksmithing, stone masonry, and the use of wheat to
make bread.
There are three self-portraits by Hika known to exist,
and all are believed to have been created during his 1814
visit to Sydney at Marsden’s request. Marsden wanted
examples of Māori art and artifacts to send to England as
gifts to the Church Missionary Society to assist with his goal
of establishing a New Zealand mission station. Marsden is
recorded as asking of Hika, “I wanted his head to send to
England; and that he must either give me his head, or make
one like it of wood.” Presumably this was gallows humor,
and the acceptance by Hika of what would otherwise be an
outrageous remark may underline a strong bond between
these two men. The bust demonstrates Hika’s excellence in
the art of carving (whakairo). The wood he used was an old
hardwood post at Marsden’s property, likely of Eucalyptus
tereticornis, and he fashioned his chisel from a piece of
hoop iron from a barrel tied to a handle.
The format of an isolated bust and self-portraiture is
more in keeping with European art traditions and is virtually
unknown in Māori art of this period. Perhaps it was because
these busts were made outside of Hika’s normal cultural
environment and for Marsden’s purposes that Hika felt at
liberty for creative innovation.
Hika made subsequent visits to Australia and he traveled
to Great Britain, primarily to secure muskets for use in war
campaigns against his enemies. This was a key element
of the Musket Wars, in which Hika had superiority in the
early years through fi rearms. He gained further advantage
through his experiences in Sydney, as he was able to
apply the knowledge he obtained there and introduced
agricultural implements and the use of slave labor to plant
potato crops, creating a revenue stream, and freeing up
the time his warriors previously spent farming to devote to
military expansion.
Hika’s successful campaigns of the Musket Wars are
certainly a causal factor for the British annexation of New
Zealand and the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.
MOKO
wear moko markings was strictly controlled. It
was a symbol of birthright, of recognized hereditary
status, or it was earned as a privilege gained
by deeds that brought great spiritual mana in
leadership, learning, and warfare. It was—and
is—a way to broadcast to onlookers the person’s
esteem, mana, status, inherited authority, expertise,
and other information about the wearer. A
facial moko not only shows a person’s individual