In Toi Te Mana Deirdre Brown (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) and Ngarino Ellis (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou), take us on an epic journey into the history of Māori art from its ancestral beginnings until the present day. Sadly, their visionary collaborator, Jonathan Mane-Wheoki(Ngāpuhi) passed before the book was completed but Toi Te Mana is also infused with his whakaaro.
This gigantic book, the first comprehensive history of Māori art, written by Māori, through a Māori lens, was over a decade in the making and at over 600 pages long and richly illustrated with more than 500 images it is truly an incredible achievement. It is the largest book ever published by Auckland University Press who are to be congratulated on the beautiful design of this handsome book.
Toi te Mana is structured as Ngā kete e toru, the three baskets of knowledge which were brought back to the mortal world by Tane, the son of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, from his journey to the highest heaven. They contained the knowledge and tikanga that inform creative practice. Across each kete there are 3 recurring themes: whenua, tikanga and whakapapa.
Together, the three kete, each divided into wide-ranging chapters and with plenty of breakout boxes to highlight individual artists, precious taonga or important events, provide an incredibly detailed and multifaceted account of the evolution of Māori art.
The first kete, Te Kete Tuatea, starts from the time when Māori first arrived on their great voyaging waka to settle in Aotearoa and is filled with the customary arts: waka, whakairo rākau (woodcarving). kākahu ( textiles), whare(architecture),toi whenua (rock art) and taonga o wharawhara (body adornment including moko. It shows how right from the beginning Māori artists adapted their artistic culture to their new environment and materials.
The second basket: Te Kete Tuarua contains the arts developed out of engagement with Pākehā when Māori artists innovatively incorporated new materials, technologies, and concepts of art originating in Europe into their art.
In this kete, Deirdre Brown unpacks the complicated relationship Māori had with missionaries. While some actively sought to repress Māori arts and culture, missionaries also introduced Māori to European architecture, which led them to build and embellish some magnificent churches, such as Rangiātea in Ōtaki. Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha supervised its construction at his pa.
The New Zealand wars and its aftermath had a profound influence on Māori art and culture. Māori lost a huge amount of their land through confiscation and compulsory acquisition. Whakairo rākau, moko and fibre arts were brought to the point of near extinction. But in pockets of land retained by Māori their traditional arts survived.
The third basket ,Te Kete Aronui, starts with the revival of customary Māori arts in the early 20th Century through pan-tribal movements led by charismatic Māori leaders.
From the mid-twentieth century on the growth of contemporary Māori art was spearheaded by waves of Māori who graduated from tertiary art schools. Influenced by European art, they adopted new media such as painting, photography, sculpture, ceramics, and digital art, which were exhibited at local and international art exhibitions.
The final chapters show how Māori art is no longer defined by national borders and is making an impact on the global stage.
Undoubtedly Toi Te Mana will find its way into every public library and every Secondary school Art department where a comprehensive history of Māori art by Māori art historians has long been awaited.
Not only will it allow students to learn about the myriads of art traditions, makers, materials, and techniques explored in this book. But I would predict that it will also result in a sea change in the way Māori art history is taught which up to now has been primarily through a chronological Eurocentric lens whereas Māori art history is cyclical, and Māori artists shift back and forth in relation to time.
Reading Toi Te Mana has been an awesome journey. I have long had an interest in Māori art, but there were countless events and significant turning points that were new to me. It enhanced my appreciation of the resilience of Māori art and culture, and its ability to adapt and renew itself from the time that Māori first arrived in Aotearoa until the present day.
As a feminist, I appreciate how the authors have deliberately sought out women artists previously sidelined in galleries and publications, such as trailblazer Pauline Yearbury, the first Māori to graduate from Elam School of Fine Arts. Why had we not heard of her before?
It is not only the narrative but the images of the taonga that I keep on returning to again and again. I am mesmerised by their beauty. And being able to put a face to some of the Māori artists including Paki Harrison, Apirana Ngata, Arnold Wilson, Hec Busby , Ramai Hayward and Te Puea Hērangi really brings this history to life.
Anyone interested in Māori art and culture should jump on the waka to experience this journey for themselves. They will discover how unique and precious our indigenous art is and why it is deservedly viewed today as one of the greatest Indigenous art traditions of the world.
Reviewer: Lyn Potter
Auckland University Press