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== Reception ==
== Reception ==
''Te Maori'' was very well received, both at home and abroad. Over 600,000 visited the exhibition at its four American locations.<ref name="YarwoodNZGeo2021" /> The New Zealand institutions saw 'unprecedented' visitor numbers.<ref name=Borell2021></ref>
''Te Maori'' was very well received, both at home and abroad. Over 600,000 visited the exhibition at its four American locations.<ref name="YarwoodNZGeo2021" /> The New Zealand institutions saw 'unprecedented' visitor numbers,<ref name=Borell2021></ref> with 917,500 attending ''Te Hokinga Mai''.<ref name=ManeWheoki1995></ref>


American press carried the messages that Māori were a living people, and that taonga held spiritual value.<ref name="greth1985">{{cite news |last1=Vidal Greth |first1=Carlos |title=Art of the New Zealand natives has spiritual as well as aesthetic value |work=Times Tribune |date=11 July 1985}}</ref><ref name="lagorie1985">{{cite news |last1=Lagorie |first1=Irene |title=De Young's 'Te Maori' Characterized By Artistic Excellence, Human Dignity |work=Monterey Peninsula Herald |date=21 July 1985}}</ref>
American press carried the messages that Māori were a living people, and that taonga held spiritual value.<ref name="greth1985">{{cite news |last1=Vidal Greth |first1=Carlos |title=Art of the New Zealand natives has spiritual as well as aesthetic value |work=Times Tribune |date=11 July 1985}}</ref><ref name="lagorie1985">{{cite news |last1=Lagorie |first1=Irene |title=De Young's 'Te Maori' Characterized By Artistic Excellence, Human Dignity |work=Monterey Peninsula Herald |date=21 July 1985}}</ref>
Line 79: Line 79:
In 1998 Amiria Salmond acknowledged the success of the exhibition for "the beauty of the pieces on display, and for the way in which indigenous and Euro-American traditions were woven together in fertile co-operation between Maori scholar Sidney Moko Mead and curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The objects were treated at once as pieces of fine art, aesthetically refined and masterly in their execution, and as ancestors, material embodiments of relationships between people and the land."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Salmond |first=Amiria |date=1998 |title=Exhibitions |journal=Anthropology Today |volume=14 |issue=5 |via=JSTOR}}</ref>
In 1998 Amiria Salmond acknowledged the success of the exhibition for "the beauty of the pieces on display, and for the way in which indigenous and Euro-American traditions were woven together in fertile co-operation between Maori scholar Sidney Moko Mead and curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The objects were treated at once as pieces of fine art, aesthetically refined and masterly in their execution, and as ancestors, material embodiments of relationships between people and the land."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Salmond |first=Amiria |date=1998 |title=Exhibitions |journal=Anthropology Today |volume=14 |issue=5 |via=JSTOR}}</ref>


The exhibition was criticised for what it excluded, including toi raranga (fibre art / weaving, mostly created by women, as opposed to carving, mostly done by men), and contemporary Māori art.<ref name=CraftingAotearoa></ref>{{r|McCarthy2007|p=141}}
The exhibition was criticised for what it excluded, including toi raranga (fibre art / weaving, mostly created by women, as opposed to carving, mostly done by men), and contemporary Māori art.<ref name=CraftingAotearoa></ref>{{r|McCarthy2007|p=141}} The 1989-1990 exhibition ''Taonga Maori: Treasures of the Maori People'' included both.<ref name=ManeWheoki1995>{{CiteQ|Q130489193}}</ref>


Some, including [[Hone Harawira]], saw Te Maori as presenting an outdated view of Māori life,<ref name="exhibitionmisleading1984">{{cite news |title=Exhibition 'misleading' |work=Dominion |date=12 September 1984}}</ref> or too constrained to the past.<ref name=Gathercole2002>{{CiteQ|Q129547499|chapter='Te Maori' in the longer view|author=Peter Gathercole}}</ref>
Some, including [[Hone Harawira]], saw Te Maori as presenting an outdated view of Māori life,<ref name="exhibitionmisleading1984">{{cite news |title=Exhibition 'misleading' |work=Dominion |date=12 September 1984}}</ref> or too constrained to the past.<ref name=Gathercole2002>{{CiteQ|Q129547499|chapter='Te Maori' in the longer view|author=Peter Gathercole}}</ref>

Revision as of 22:52, 11 October 2024

Te Maori
touring exhibition of Māori art, 1984–1986
Country
  • United States
Country of origin
  • New Zealand
OpenedMetropolitan Museum of Art
Via
ClosedField Museum of Natural History
Exhibited
  • 174 Taonga
Curator
Organiser
Sponsor
Funder
Followed by
[edit on Wikidata]

Te Maori (sometimes Te Māori in modern sources) was a watershed exhibition of Māori art (taonga[Note 1]) that toured the United States from 1984 to 1986, and New Zealand from 1986 to 1987 as Te Maori: Te Hokinga Mai ("the return home"). It was the first time Māori art was shown internationally as art instead of ethnographic collections, and the involvement of iwi impacted museum practice in New Zealand and globally. It is considered a milestone in the Māori Renaissance.

Background

From the time contact was first made between Māori and Europeans, Māori social and cultural objects were collected for inclusion in private collections and museums, as were human remains.

These objects were collected, catalogued and displayed ethnographically, treating Māori as a part of natural history rather than creators of culture that might be exhibited in an artistic context.[1] Until the late twentieth century museum visitors and staff were unlikely to be Māori, and taonga were interpreted in the light of Western intellectual frameworks.[2]

The Auckland War Memorial Museum – Tāmaki Paenga Hira holds a significant collection of Māori material culture. For much of its history, the museum acquired and displayed these materials without consultation with Māori or regard for their values.

One such example was its display of ‘mokamokai’ (now referred to as toi moko; preserved heads of Māori, whose faces had been adorned with tā moko tattoos), which Māori found both ‘disappointing’ and ‘culturally insensitive.’

In contrast, the Kakahu Fashion Project[3] (organised by Māori activist Hana Te Hemara), which debuted at the museum in 1971, was considered to be a more humanising display and celebration of Māori culture.[4]

Exhibition development

The idea of a major exhibition of Māori artworks that would tour the United States was first raised in 1973 by Douglas Newton, Evelyn A. J. Hall and John A Friede from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Paul Cotton, the New Zealand Consul General in New York.[5]: 15  Though the idea was well-received, including by New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk, delays were caused by Kirk's passing and the lack of funding.

In 1979 Douglas Newton and Wilder Green of the American Federation of Arts raised the idea again, and in 1981 the New Zealand Cabinet approved the exhibition in principle.[5]: 15  The Nga Mangai o Te Maori management committee was formed in April 1981 to organise the exhibition.[6] Members of that committee included Sidney Moko Mead, Mina McKenzie and Piri Sciascia.[6]

The exhibition was supported by the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council with funding from Mobil Oil.

Hirini Moko Mead was co-curator of the exhibition.[7]

Unlike previous exhibitions of Māori work, iwi had to give permission for the artworks to be included, highlighting the difference between museum ownership and authority. This was seen as an outcome of political and cultural advocacy by Māori since the 1960s.[8][1]: 138 

During the planning process, the objects displayed were called 'taonga' by the involved institutions, acknowledging more meaning than the term 'artwork'.[8][1]: 143-145 

Works included

Te Maori included 174 taonga, most being whakairo (carved wood) or carved pounamu (greenstone). Most came from the collections of 12 New Zealand institutions, 51 loaned by Auckland Institute and Museum,[9][10] 38 from the National Museum.[11] One came from the collections of the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Artists whose work featured in the exhibition included:

A centre piece of the exhibition was a Tainui carving, Te Uenuku, noted as one of the oldest carvings in Aotearoa New Zealand, being dated between 1200 and 1500.[13] Te Uenuku was almost not included in the expedition because it was considered too fragile to travel, however Maori Queen Te Atairangikaahu decided it needed to be included. [14][13]

Display of taonga

The change from ethnographic treatment of the works was reflected in how they were displayed, giving them individual focus through space and lighting more like that used in art galleries.

The National Museum trialled this method of display in 1983, exhibiting the taonga from their collections that would be shown in Te Maori at the Academy of Fine Arts.[1]: 145 

Inclusion of Māori cultural practices

Part of the exhibition was carefully held practices and values guided by Māori tikanga. This included dawn ceremonies, traditional karakia, speeches in the Māori language, waiata and kapa haka, during which some warriors had moko on their faces. Accompanying the taonga with these practices was described as 'the complete package' by Piri Sciascia, making it clear that the objects were part of a living culture,[1]: 139  and that Māori were both the artistic and spiritual guardians on their own culture.[14]

This is significant because for Maori carving involves important cultural ideas around identity and mana.[1]

Mead described the effect at the prestigious institution of the Met: "It did much to make tikanga Māori more acceptable not only to the population at large of Aotearoa but, more importantly, among our own people."[15]

Groups of Māori from several iwi travelled with the exhibition to supervise installation and care of the taonga, perform ceremonies, and participate in events.[16]

The tour

Te Maori opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in New York on 10 September 1984 and was also presented at Saint Louis Art Museum (February–May 1985), the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco (July–September 1985), and the Field Museum in Chicago (March–June 1986).

The opening at the Metropolitan Museum was led by Sonny Waru, a Taranaki leader and a party of 90 elders and artists.[17]

During the tour the Māori participants connected with First Nations communities. In San Francisco their taonga were welcomed by baskets by Pomo, Yokuts, Hupa, Yurok and Karok creators.[18]

Te Hokinga Mai: The return home

Main article: Te Maori: Te Hokinga Mai

Te Maori continued once the taonga returned to New Zealand in August 1986 as Te Maori: Te Hokinga Mai ("The return home"). Starting at the National Museum of New Zealand in Wellington, it travelled to Otago Museum in Dunedin, Robert McDougall Art Gallery in Christchurch, finishing at the Auckland City Art Gallery.[19][20]

Te Hokinga Mai closed on 10 September 1987, three years to the day after opening at the Met.

Reception

Te Maori was very well received, both at home and abroad. Over 600,000 visited the exhibition at its four American locations.[17] The New Zealand institutions saw 'unprecedented' visitor numbers,[21] with 917,500 attending Te Hokinga Mai.[22]

American press carried the messages that Māori were a living people, and that taonga held spiritual value.[23][24]

When the Te Maori cultural group performed at the American Museum of Natural History there was no doubt something had happened. The audience was already won over even before the performance began. What they wanted was to touch Maori culture and Maori people to learn more and more and more. They were reaching out to us in a way that is difficult to describe.[25]

In 1998 Amiria Salmond acknowledged the success of the exhibition for "the beauty of the pieces on display, and for the way in which indigenous and Euro-American traditions were woven together in fertile co-operation between Maori scholar Sidney Moko Mead and curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The objects were treated at once as pieces of fine art, aesthetically refined and masterly in their execution, and as ancestors, material embodiments of relationships between people and the land."[26]

The exhibition was criticised for what it excluded, including toi raranga (fibre art / weaving, mostly created by women, as opposed to carving, mostly done by men), and contemporary Māori art.[8][1]: 141  The 1989-1990 exhibition Taonga Maori: Treasures of the Maori People included both.[22]

Some, including Hone Harawira, saw Te Maori as presenting an outdated view of Māori life,[27] or too constrained to the past.[28]

Legacy

Te Maori raised the profile of Māori culture in New Zealand significantly. Māori used the increased respect afforded to their culture to push for further changes.[1]: 146 

The international response to the exhibition influenced New Zealand media to pay attention to Māori art.[20] In 1984 a Television New Zealand programme Koha – Te Māori, a Cloak of Words by Ray Waru and Ernie Leonard covered the exhibition and featured the kapa haka at the pōwhiri (opening ceremony) lead by Pita Sharples.[29] Two films on Māori art were produced in 1985: Te Māori – A Celebration of the People and their Art by Māori film maker Don Selwyn[30] and Koha – Te Māori Guard, New York.[31] Waru also made a film Te Māori – Te Hokinga Mai.[32]

Museum practice changed to involve Māori in the interpretation and display of their cultural heritage. Museums began embedding a bicultural approach to 'consultation, planning, presentation' and audience engagement with taonga.[21] The museum sector overall started to understand that taonga were more than isolated objects.

This model has become an international standard of practice among museums that hold Māori and Pacific works,[33] and has influenced institutions with holdings from other Indigenous communities.

More Māori started working in museums, and training in specialisations like conservation and curation.[34] Funding for this training with the profits of the exhibition was recommended by the Te Maori management committee.[35]

It also influenced the new building of the national museum of New Zealand Te Papa.[1][4][16]

Major exhibitions influenced by Te Maori include:

  • Taonga Maori (1989–1990)
  • Treasures and Landmarks (1990)
  • Te Waka Toi: contemporary Māori art from New Zealand (1992–1993)


Mobil, who sponsored Te Maori, also sponsored the Pegasus Prize for literature to promote the works of authors from other countries which would not normally be read by Americans.[38][39] The exhibition prompted Mobil to focus on Māori authors and in 1984 a panel of New Zealand judges was set up to select a work to be put forward for the Prize.[38][39] The winner of the Prize in 1985 was Keri Hulme's The Bone People.[40]

September 10th 2024 marked forty years since the opening of Te Māori at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In an interview reflecting on the impact of Te Maori, cultural adviser Kura Moeahu stated:[41]

Te Māori has enabled new knowledge to evolve from out of the taonga, from ancient knowledge, and it continues to create new knowledge. That's what Te Māori has done.

— RNZ, 'Te Māori reawoke all the arts that had been hiding away quietly': Te Māori exhibition 40 years on

Notes

  1. ^ The word in te reo Māori is broader than artwork, referring to anything of value, including socially and culturally valuable objects, resources, and ideas, and is sometimes translated into English as 'treasures'.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Conal McCarthy (2007). Exhibiting Māori: a history of colonial cultures of display. Oxford: Berg Publishers. ISBN 978-1-84-520474-7. Wikidata Q129533161.
  2. ^ Tapsell, Paora (1996). "Taonga and obligations of reciprocity". New Zealand Museums Journal. 26 (1): 26-39.
  3. ^ Underhill, Bridget. "Hana [Jackson] Te Hemara". Kōmako. Archived from the original on 5 June 2024. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  4. ^ a b Conal McCarthy (April 2011). Museums and Māori: Heritage Professionals, Indigenous Collections, Current Practice. Wellington: Te Papa Press. ISBN 978-1-8773857-0-4. OL 44879742M. Wikidata Q125831399.
  5. ^ a b Wilder Green, "Acknowledgements" in Sidney Moko Mead; Agnes Sullivan; David Simmons; Anne Salmond; Bernard Kernot; Piri Sciascia (1984). Te Maori: Maori art from New Zealand collections (in English and Māori). Illustrator: Athol McCredie. Auckland: Heinemann. ISBN 0-86863-590-1. OL 8331977M. Wikidata Q126190447.
  6. ^ a b Te Māori : he tukunga korero : a report (in English and Māori). Department of Māori Affairs. 1988. ISBN 0-477-01529-8. Wikidata Q130375879.
  7. ^ Sidney Moko Mead (2016). Tikanga Māori: living by Māori values. Huia Publishers. ISBN 978-1-77-550222-7. Wikidata Q127272379.
  8. ^ a b c Chitham, Karl; Māhina-Tuai, Kolokesa; Skinner, Damian, eds. (7 November 2019). Crafting Aotearoa: A Cultural History of Making in New Zealand and the Wider Moana Oceania (1st ed.). Wellington: Te Papa Press. ISBN 978-0-9941362-7-5. LCCN 2019458275. OCLC 1118996645. OL 36253404M. Wikidata Q115628903.
  9. ^ Sidney Moko Mead; Agnes Sullivan; David Simmons; Anne Salmond; Bernard Kernot; Piri Sciascia (1984). Te Maori: Maori art from New Zealand collections (in English and Māori). Illustrator: Athol McCredie. Auckland: Heinemann. ISBN 0-86863-590-1. OL 8331977M. Wikidata Q126190447.
  10. ^ "Auckland War Memorial Museum News Number Sixteen" (PDF). Museum Quarterly. 16. Auckland: Auckland War Memorial Museum. December 1983. ISSN 0111-2252. Wikidata Q115749474.
  11. ^ Tamarapa, Awhina (9 September 2009). "Te Maori – 25th year anniversary". Te Papa Blog. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
  12. ^ "Greenstone carver and proud to be". Tu Tangata (25): 40. 1 August 1985.
  13. ^ a b "Uenuku". Te Awamutu Museum Collection Online. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  14. ^ a b Harple, Todd S. (1996). "Considering The Maori in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Negotiation of Social Identity in Exhibitory Cultures". Jornal of Arts Management, Law & Society. 25 (4): 292–306. doi:10.1080/10632921.1996.9941806.
  15. ^ Sidney Moko Mead (2016). Tikanga Māori: living by Māori values. Huia Publishers. ISBN 978-1-77-550222-7. Wikidata Q127272379.
  16. ^ a b Tapsell, Paora (22 October 2014). "Te Māori and its impact". Te Ara. Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Archived from the original on 4 September 2024. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
  17. ^ a b Yarwood, Vaughan (September 2021). "The art of change". New Zealand Geographic. p. 112.
  18. ^ "Porcupine". Berkeley Voice. 31 July 1985.
  19. ^ David Simmons; Merimeri Penfold (1986). Te Maori: te hokinga mai: The return home (in English and Māori). Illustrator: Brian Brake. Auckland: Auckland Art Gallery. ISBN 0-86463-148-0. OL 22628793M. Wikidata Q126190702.
  20. ^ a b "Te Maori exhibition opens in New York". NZHistory. Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 4 September 2020. Archived from the original on 30 May 2024. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
  21. ^ a b Borell, Nigel (16 March 2022). Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art (in English and Māori). Auckland: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-1437767-3-4. OCLC 1296712119. Wikidata Q120560720.
  22. ^ a b Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (1995). "The resurgence of Maori art: Conflicts and continuities in the Eighties". The Contemporary Pacific. 7 (1). ISSN 1043-898X. Wikidata Q130489193.
  23. ^ Vidal Greth, Carlos (11 July 1985). "Art of the New Zealand natives has spiritual as well as aesthetic value". Times Tribune.
  24. ^ Lagorie, Irene (21 July 1985). "De Young's 'Te Maori' Characterized By Artistic Excellence, Human Dignity". Monterey Peninsula Herald.
  25. ^ Sidney Moko Mead (1984). "Te Maori in New York". Art New Zealand (33). ISSN 0110-1102. Wikidata Q129531921.
  26. ^ Salmond, Amiria (1998). "Exhibitions". Anthropology Today. 14 (5) – via JSTOR.
  27. ^ "Exhibition 'misleading'". Dominion. 12 September 1984.
  28. ^ Peter Gathercole (2002). "'Te Maori' in the longer view". In Anita Herle (ed.). Pacific Art: Persistence, change and meaning. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press. ISBN 978-0-82-482556-0. Wikidata Q129547499.
  29. ^ NZ On Screen (1984). "Koha – Te Māori, a Cloak of Words". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  30. ^ NZ On Screen (1985). "Te Māori – A Celebration of the People and their Art". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  31. ^ NZ On Screen (1985). "Koha – Te Māori Guard, New York | Television". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  32. ^ NZ On Screen. "Ray Waru". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  33. ^ Maia Nuku (2021). ""Te Maori": New Precedents for Indigenous Art at The Met". Metropolitan Museum Journal. 56. doi:10.1086/718034. ISSN 0077-8958. Wikidata Q127272340.
  34. ^ Williams, Matariki (20 January 2024). "On Te Maori and it's legacy". Art News Aotearoa. Archived from the original on 12 September 2024. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  35. ^ Stephens, Vanessa (26 September 1988). "Te Maori profits set for curator training". Dominion.
  36. ^ "Visual Arts". New Zealand International Festival of the Arts. New Zealand International Festival of the Arts. 1986. p. 49.
  37. ^ "Whakaahua Maori". Tu Tangata (28): 40. 1 February 1986.
  38. ^ a b "Maori writers will be read internationally". Tu Tangata (16): 20. 1 March 1984.
  39. ^ a b "Pegasus Prize is big league". Tu Tangata (17): 2. 1 April 1984.
  40. ^ Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie, eds. The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, 1998.
  41. ^ "'Te Māori reawoke all the arts that had been hiding away quietly': Te Māori exhibition 40 years on". RNZ. 7 September 2024. Retrieved 11 October 2024.

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Te_Maori&oldid=1250692050"