Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portraits

Representations of tūpuna, ancestors, hold profound significance in te ao Māori, the Māori world. They embody customary cultural values including mana, tapu and mauri (prestige, sacredness and life force) and hold the ancestral ties of whakapapa. For centuries, representations of tūpuna were given form through whakairo (carving). The mediums of painting and photography were adopted from the mid-19th century for this purpose, with these new forms of portraiture congregating among or standing in place of whakairo in whare tūpuna (ancestral meeting houses) and their modern equivalents.

Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portraits brings together whakairo and oil paintings from the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, offering insights into the significance of tūpuna representations within te ao Māori. ‘Ngā taonga’ means many treasures while ‘tūturu’ signifies something permanent, true and original. This exhibition considers the inherent cultural values embodied and expressed within and through these taonga from a te ao Māori view.

One of the most prolific portraitists of the late 19th and early 20th-century, Gottfried Lindauer’s paintings acknowledge the mana and self-determination of tūpuna through his respectful evocation of their likeness. They were widely commissioned by Māori and Pākehā (European New Zealander) alike. The portraits in this exhibition radiate outwards from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, representing iwi (tribe) and hapū (subtribe) from throughout the motu (island). Recalling a whare tupuna, the gallery resonates with the mauri of these tūpuna.

Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portraits coincides with the naming of this gallery in honour of Apihai Te Kawau, paramount chief of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, whose son Te Hira Te Kawau appears in a portrait by Lindauer, pictured above.

He kitenga kanohi, he hokinga mahara. Inā kē te nui o te mana, te tapu, te ihi me te wehi o ngā tūpuna ki ngā uri whakaheke. E hia kē nei ngā rautau e whakairohia ana ō rātou āhua ki te rākau. I waenganui i te rautau 19, ka ara mai ngā whakaahua kiritangata me te mahi whakaahua, kātahi ka whakairingia ēnei pikitia, pērā i te whakairo, ki ngā pakitara o ngā whare tūpuna me ngā whare huihui o te ao hou.

E whakahuihui ana te whakaaturanga o Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portraits i ngā whakairo me ngā mahi peita hinu nō te kohinga o Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki – he tirohanga ki te hiranga o ēnei whakaahua tūpuna ki te ao Māori. E kīia ana, ko ‘ngā taonga tūturu’ ēnei. Ko te whakatinanatanga tēnei o rātou mā, ō rātou āhua, waihoki he tirohanga ki tō rātou ao Māori i te wā i a rātou.

Arā noa atu ngā whakaahua kiritangata i tāia e Gottfried Lindauer i ngā tau tōmuri o te rautau 19 me te tīmatanga o te rautau 20. Kei te rangona te mana me te rangatiratanga o ngā tūpuna, he mea tā ō rātou āhua i runga i te ngākau whakaiti. He nui tonu ngā kaitono pikitia, Māori mai, Pākehā mai hoki. E toro atu ana ngā whakaahua kiritangata kei tēnei whakaaturanga, ki tua rā anō o Tāmaki Makaurau, koinei ngā kanohi o ngā iwi, o ngā hapū o te motu whānui tonu. Me he whare tupuna, e pāorooro ana te mana o ēnei tūpuna ki roto i tēnei wharetoi.

E ōrua ana te whakaaturanga o Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portrait me te tapanga o tēnei wharetoi ki te ingoa o Āpihai Te Kawau te ingoa, he rangatira nui nō Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.

Image credit: Gottfried Lindauer, Te Hira Te Kawau, 1874, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Mr H E Partridge, 1915.