George French Angas (Artist), W Hawkins (Lithographer)

E Pori. E Rangi Wawa. Porirua Pah

E Pori. E Rangi Wawa. Porirua Pah by George French Angas, W Hawkins

Artwork Detail

Angas's description:

"PLATE XX.

E PORI AND HER DAUGHTER E RANGI WAWA.

E PORI is wife of one of Rangihaeta's warriors; she is celebrated for her skill in the art of witchcraft, and is regarded as a priestess by the surrounding people. She resides at the small Pah of Porirua, near Taupo Pah, on the shores of Cook's Straits. Her dress is a simple kakahu, of coarse and unprepared flax; and in her ear is a bunch of the feathers of the albatross, worn as an ornament. The blue lines on her face, are the outward signs of mourning for her friends, having been cut with pepi shells during the paroxysms of grief to which the women yield themselves, on the death of a favorite individual belonging to their tribe.

E Rangi Wawa is regarded as a beauty amongst the inhabitants of Porirua; she is about seventeen years of age, modest and retiring in her manner, and displays that playful and child-like naiveté, which is so characteristic amongst the girls of New Zealand. The dress is an ornamental variety of E Koroai, a white flax mat, with rolled and twisted strings. In the foreground is a calabash used for carrying water, and beyond is represented a portion of the fence-work of Porirua Pah, with a whata, or raised store-house for food, and a stile leading into a court-yard, the step to which is formed by one of the vertebrae of a whale."

Title
E Pori. E Rangi Wawa. Porirua Pah
Artist/creator
George French Angas, W Hawkins
Production date
circa 1847
Medium
hand coloured lithograph
Dimensions
280 x 210 mm
Credit line
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 2009
Accession no
2009/16/8/1
Copyright
No known copyright restrictions
Department
New Zealand Art
Display status
Not on display

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