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ALBRECHT DÜRER - MADRID - PAGE 4
Māori woman
weaving |
- Why is the Māori discovery of New Zealand
around 1250-1300 so often overlooked?
- Māori have a strong arts tradition;
tattooing, weaving and carving.
Māori Chantilly lace |
- Victorian lace collar on a traditional Māori feather cloak,
all made with flax.
- New Zealand’s Lacemaker to Royalty.
| Thread stripped from the leaf by hand is a much finer thread than thread stripped by machine. In traditional hand-stripping, a mussel shell is scraped along the length of a strip of flax, forcing the green fleshy outer layer of the leaf down through and away from the fibres, and leaving the fibres clean and clearly separated into individual threads. (alibrown.nz) |
Māori cloak |
- Korowai is a traditional Māori cloak made from the feathers of the native kiwi bird or woven flax (harakeke) fibers.
Worn over other clothing to provide warmth and protection from
the wind and rain.
- Kakahu is a woven cloak made from flax or wool
that were worn for warmth and protection during colder weather or when traveling long distances.
- Woven garments, such as kahu huruhuru (feather cloaks), kahu kuri (dog skin cloaks), and kahu kaka (parrot skin cloaks). These garments provided warmth and protection from the elements.
| New Zealand’s climate prevented the Polynesian ancestors of Māori from growing their usual plants for making fabric. Instead they developed a rich culture of weaving, largely based on flax. They produced beautiful objects ranging from the practical (food baskets and floor mats) to the treasured and prestigious (intricately woven cloaks). (teara.govt.nz) |
Māori flax rope |
Māori flax skirt |
- New Zealand flax.
- The abundant nectar from flax flowers was a favourite beverage and food sweetener.
- Māori had a flax for every purpose; heavy-duty long fibers,
and short fibers for finer works and every fiber length in
between. Long ribbons of soft, silky muka and long bendy varieties for basket making.
At first, Māori women used flax in the same
way they had used the pandanus plant in Polynesia –
weaving baskets, containers and mats from the leaves.
They then learned to obtain the strong fibre
(muka) from the leaves by scraping the green flesh
away with a sharp shell. The muka was pounded until
soft, then washed and sometimes dyed. Twisted, plaited
and woven, it was used to create a wide range of
items, such as fishing nets and traps, footwear, cords
and ropes. (teara.govt.nz) |
Flax for basket making |
- Weaving of rush baskets.
Māori traditional weaving |
- Māori weaving using the best
quality muka (flax fiber).
Various types (cultivars) of flax were seen as having specific uses by different iwi (tribes). For instance, the cultivar ‘Māeneene’ was used by the Ngāi Tūhoe people of Urewera to weave fine patterned mats.
Ngāti Porou sought the ‘Tākirikau’ cultivar for making piupiu (kilts). The ‘Kōhunga’ cultivar produced muka that Ngāti Maniapoto used for their finest cloaks.
Whanganui tribes chose the ‘Ate’ cultivar for
making eel nets and kete (baskets). (teara.govt.nz) |
Māori Tatua
woven belt |
- Māori warriors would wear a
flax kilt (maro) with a tatua belt into battle and used for
carrying smaller weapons in the waistband.
Harakeke flax leaves |
Harakeke flax dart |
- Not a true flax, comes from
the lily family (Canna lily).
- The common name “flax” was given by early European traders because its fiber
is similar to that of the true flax plant.
- The importance
of flax to early Māori cannot be overstated. It was their godsend, the most important thing to them after food.
- European settlers were quick to recognise the export value of the fiber
and the first major shipment to London, 60 tons, occurred
prior to 1818. By 1830, a regular export flax trade had been
established.
Harakeke would soon became transformed into platters to eat from, buckets to carry soil and sand for cultivating gardens and building fortifications, lines and nets for fishing, mats to sleep on and to cover floors, lashings for canoes and dwellings, snares to trap birds, sails for canoes, sandals to protect the feet of travellers.
Māori babies were given rattles made from
flax, and every boy knew how to flick a flax dart.
Splints for broken bones were made from leaf bases,
and flax fibres or strips used for sewing up a wound.
You name it, Māori found a way to do it with harakeke. (teara.govt.nz) |
Māori tapestry |
- Māori tribal art print.
- A rich tapestry of culture.
- Tāniko.
Māori weaver |
- Hineteiwaiwa is the principal
goddess of te whare pora (the house of weaving), and she
represents the arts pursued by women.
Māori wood carving |
- Māori carvings are rich in symbolism and use common patterns, though styles differ between tribes.
- Native timbers, particularly wood from the majestic giants of the forest, the kauri and totara.
- The trees used for wood carving represent Tāne Mahuta, the god of the forest
(newzealand.com).
- Parata is a head without a body carved in a more realistic manner
and was fixed to a canoe or was the main gable to a house.
A single tongue poking out beyond the mouth was an act of defiance. The double tongue (Arero Roa) quite often if an ancestral carving was giving a double tongue it meant he was an important orator on the Marae.
Knowledge was often passed on in the form of stories and legends so as to keep it interesting and it would stay in peoples memories. This meant that half the story was basic truth and the rest was exaggerated window dressing... Hence he spoke with two tongues. (giftsnz.com) |
Shiva Eye Red |
- Māori shell carvings.
- Paua
( mutton fish) abalone shell.
- Pāua shells are used to represent eyes of human and animal figures in Māori carvings.
- Paua eyes were used because they reflecte light at night, which made the carvings more life like.
- When it came to depicting rage in the eyes of warriors, red paua shells were used.
- Paua have an oval shaped shell, inside which is a large muscular foot which clings to rocks.
| The Paua is the most colourful seashell in
the world. There is no other shell in the world that
has the color like Paua Shell color that varies from
greens & pinks to purples & blues and even some shells
with gold or crimson tones. (seashellstory.co.nz) |
Māori
fairy Hine-rehia leaving through backdoor |
- Māori believed that the techniques of weaving and plaiting were acquired from a patupaiarehe, or
fairy, named Hine-rehia.
- Hine-rehiz,
a fair-skinned fairy, married a mortal and would carry on her weaving
at night like a normal fairy.
Pumpkin |
- At dawn she would put away
her weaving because the sun was capable of undoing her work,
and her skills as well.
- Anxious to learn her secrets in the light of day, the
Māori women used a tohunga (spiritual practitioner) to confuse her so that she would carry on weaving after the sun rose.
| It was not long before Hine-rehia realised that she had been tricked. She sang a sad farewell to her husband and children before a cloud bore her away to the Moehau Range. Sometimes, in deep fog, her lament can still be heard. (nzgeo.com) |
Māori sacred greenstone |
- Māori
pounamu known as greenstone or New Zealand jade is highly prized.
-
There have been multiple incidents of large-scale smuggling operations
where pounamu has been looted in huge quantities from isolated West Coast beaches and rivers.
Māori used the stone to make tools such as adzes, chisels, gouges and knives for carving and cutting wood. Sometimes they made fish hooks, hammer stones and points for spears. They used sandstone to shape the pounamu.
Pounamu weapons were used for fighting, but they were also carried by chiefs to show their high status. They were also used in ceremonies, and sometimes they were given as a symbol of a peace agreement.
Māori made pounamu into earrings, necklaces and rings. The most well-known type of neck pendant is called the tiki. (Basil Keane) |
Māori carved jade |
- Pounamu is a Māori term that refers to 3 different stone types; Nephrite
jade, Bowenite and Serpentine
- Māori Carvings and New Zealand Identity.
- They also carved wood and bone.
Māori stone fishing lure |
-
The history of carving started with the story of Ruatepupuke.
He discovered the art of carving when his father, Tangaroa,
the God of the sea captured his son and great-grandson, Te Manuhauturuki.
- Te had a never-ending hunger for seafood, to satisfy his hunger Ruatepupke crafted a stone into a fishing lure and named it Whatukura-o-Tangaroa (the sacred stone of Tangaroa).
- Tangaroa was offended that his name had been used without permission by his own grandson and sought revenge.
- When Manuhauturuki tried the lure, he caught a lot of fish but did not abide by the custom and tradition of offering the first fish back to Tangaroa, which further angered him.
| Tangaroa decided to punish his great-grandson by pulling him down to the depths of the sea where he was then transformed into a tekoteko (carved figure) and placed at the top of Tangaroa’s house. (mountainjade.co.nz) |
Māori village |
- When Ruatepupuke noticed his son was missing, he followed his footsteps to the water's edge and dived into its depths.
- He came to the village under water where Tangaroa lived and found houses covered in carvings, some of which were animated, singing and talking to each other.
When Ruatepupuke asked the carvings about his son, one of the talking carved posts told him to look to Tangaroas house, where there was bird shaped tekoteko atop his roof, as that was his son.
Ruatepupuke then hid in Tangaroa’s house and waited for the fish people who lived there to fall asleep. He then set the house on fire and rescued only his son and some of the poupou that were unable to speak, which is how the first carvings came into the world. (mountainjade.co.nz) |
Māori Maraki-hau (merman) |
Māori Maraki-hau |
- The Maraki-hau monster is usually a male; and this merman is
figured with a long snaky tongue ending in a kind of funnel,
into which both fish and men are sucked or scooped. He has a fluked tail curved like a sea-horse.
- They are the spirits of the dead and harass the inhabitants of the coast and the sailors.
- Nowadays Maraki-hau symbolizes power, strength, and it is considered a protector of the ocean.
During the past 70 or 80 years the marakihau has
undergone a strange transformation. By about 1880 the
scales had disappeared from the body and those on the
head had been replaced by a pair of horns in the best
Viking manner. (teara.govt.nz)
|
Māori Patupaiarehe fairy |
- The Patupaiarehe were the first people of New Zealand.
- They have light skin, red or fair hair and unlike the
Māori are never tattooed.
- Sunlight was a curse to
them and they only came out at night when the mist would
protect them.
- They only ate raw food, cooked food was an
abomination to them.
In some stories albino birds and eels, red
flax and red eels were considered to be the sole
property of the Patupaiarehe and woe betide any Māori
caught taking these.
Like with so many stories there are those who believe the patupaiarehe are something more than just myth. There is a subculture within New Zealand who firmly believe that they were the descendants of Celtic tribes who discovered New Zealand some 3000 years before the first Polynesians, pointing at tribal groups such as the Ngati Hotu who historically had instances of red hair and fair skin amongst their people when little or no intermarriages were known. (nzgeo.com) |
Māori Taniwha |
- In Māori mythology, the taniwha are supernatural beings that live in deep pools in rivers.
- They also live in caves and the ocean, especially in dangerous regions of the sea, like areas with powerful currents or deceptive breakwaters.
- Fiery eyes and lashing tails.
- Some taniwha would eat and kill people, or kidnap women. Others were believed to be guardians for a tribe, and people would offer them gifts and say a karakia (spell).
- Crucial to the stories of deadly taniwha were the heroic slayers, who triumphed with their cunning and courage
(teara.govt.nz).
- Shapeshifters.
- Hook.
Much like the mermaid legend, some stories of taniwha suggest they are benevolent protectors, and others indicate they are dangerous predatory beings.
The taniwha could take on different forms depending on where it lived. Deep sea taniwha were thought to look like a whale or a large shark.
When living in rivers or inland lakes, the taniwha would take on the form of an enormous gecko or giant lizard.
Still other stories suggest the taniwha could take on the appearance of a floating log, often to deceive passersby. Inspired by the legends of mysterious creatures and mythical monsters from around the world. (andersondesigngroupstore.com) |
Küpe |
Küpe Modelleri |
- Küpe was a legendary Polynesian explorer who was the first person to discover New Zealand
in oral history.
- Responsible for the genesis of the Māori people about 1,000 years ago.
- Küpe’s voyage across the Pacific Ocean was due to his pursuit of a great octopus that was troubling his homeland of Hawaiki (Tahiti).
- Küpe doll.
- Gold drop.
- Kupe; earring in
English.
- Mount Kupe Bushshrike, rare bird with green wings and tail,
endangered in Cameroon and Nigeria.
Clouds |
- Food was scarce and his people were unable to catch any fish,
he decided to set out in his canoe and kill the octopus.
| With his wife Hine-te-aparangi, companion
Ngake (or Ngahue) and a crew, Kupe chased the octopus
across the Pacific Ocean, eventually landing in
Aotearoa to re-supply. It is said that his wife came
up with the name of Aotearoa, meaning ‘long white
cloud’ after seeing the clouds that formed over North
Island. (sea.museum) |
Octopus |
- Küpe succeeded in killing the octopus at the mouth of Cook Strait.
-
Along the way, he named names many places as he
journeyed. These names have been preserved by generations of Māori who settled the regions.
-
Reasons to Travel by Kupe in Russia.
- Kup-era; cut (deck
of playing cards) English.
God Himself told Ephraim to mark their way so that they could return one day to the Promised Land: "Set up signposts, make landmarks; set your heart toward the highway, the way in which you went. Turn back, O virgin of Israel, turn back to these your cities."
(Jeremiah 31:21)
Dan shall be a
serpent by the way, a viper by the path. (Genesis 49:17)
And thus they have been naming places after their ancestor ever since! A good map of Europe will show dozens of place names carrying the name of Dan within them. The Don, Dnieper, Dniester and Danube rivers all flow into the Black Sea. The Romans knew the Rhine and Rhone rivers as the Eridanus and the Rhodanus. Denmark (literally, "Dan's Land") and Sweden are both northwestern European countries. The English escaped from Dunkirk (literally, "Dan's Church") during WWII. One can find similar place names sprinkled heavily throughout England, Scotland, and especially Ireland, where dun means "judge," just as dan does in Hebrew!
(bibletools.org) |
Albrecht now travelling in a railway car |
- Kupe; compartment, coupé (two-door car with a fixed roof) in
Swedish.
- Oc-Kup-era; occupied (squatting)
Swedish.
- Pic-kup truck (open bed).
- From the well, Sanskrit.
- Money in Samoan.
- Kupe; coupé (railway car) in Serbo-Croatian.
- Kupe; tick in Swahili.
- Kupe; cube in Turkish.
- Kupe with an interesting comment...is this a troll by devs?
| The surname Kupe was first found in East Prussia, where the name Koop came from humble beginnings but gained a significant reputation for its contribution to the emerging mediaeval society. It later became more prominent as numerous branches of the same house acquired distant estates, some of which were located in other countries. Through the acquisition of these estates as well as their important contributions to society, the family successfully elevated their social status. (houseofnames.com) |
Punga anchor stone |
- Küpe’s punga (anchor stones).
- While at Porirua harbour, Kupe exchanged the anchor stone for a local stone that he could take back to his homeland
where it was placed on the beach and renamed Te Huka-a-Tai.
- Peeping Tom, spy.
- "Kupe Dance" by A-Star is a popular Afrobeat song.
| Kupe brought two anchor stones from Hawaiki
in his waka-hourua (double-hulled canoe) named
Matahorua. One of the anchor stones, Maungaroa was
sourced from the Tatara-a-punga stone, taken from the
hill Maungaroa in Rarotonga from where it takes its
name. (sea.museum) |
Drowned anchor stones
Mahuika goddess of fire
with nails of fire |
- The stone remained for many centuries, until the 1840s
when European military started chipping pieces off it.
-
The soldiers were drowned not long after and the Māori natives
claim they were cursed for disrespecting their ancestral
stone.
- Elephant.
| The stone is now part of the Taonga Māori collection at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and stands as one of New Zealand’s rarest and oldest artefacts. (sea.museum) |
An early 19th century brigantine
named Venus |
- Built in Calcutta, the Venus arrived in Sydney on May
8, 1805, with a cargo of tea, rice and jute sacks.
- Sydney merchants Campbell and Co.
Convict pirates |
- In April 1806 Charlotte Badger, her young child, and another woman, Catharine Hagerty, left Port Jackson (Sydney) for Hobart on the Venus.
- At Port Dalrymple, on the north coast of Tasmania, some of the crew on board mutinied and took control of the ship from the captain.
- At North Cape, the convicts seized and carried off two high born Aupouri women as sex slaves.
- At Bay of Islands two of the crew and two convict female passengers were marooned ashore, and two chieftainesses were kidnapped.
One of these women was the sister of Te Morenga, who was one of the most powerful chiefs at the Bay. The other was related to Hongi Hika who later achieved fame as the greatest Musket Wars general and conqueror of tribes. Calling at Whangarei, two further high born women were kidnapped, one of them being Tawaputa, the niece of Te Morenga.
Entering the Hauraki Gulf, the Venus visited Thames where it was boarded by the leading Ngati Paoa rangatira Te Haupa and his daughter. Noticing that the sails were billowing and that the Venus was underway Te Haupa leapt overboard, but his daughter was carried off by the pirates. (The Voyage of the Venus Pirates, 1806-1807) |
Rough seas |
- The convicts sold Te Morenga’s niece who was purchased in exchange for parawai (superior cloaks), she was kept as his slave wife.
- Te Waru, leading chief came into dispute over Tawaputa. Taken across to Tauranga, she was killed and her body was cooked and eaten.
Te Morenga sent spies disguised as traders to the Bay of Plenty and East Coast. They reported that some of the women abducted by the Venus convicts had been sold, and later killed and eaten at Tauranga, and at Maraenui Pa, the Te Whanau-a-Apanui fortress located at the mouth of the Motu River in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.
Others, including Te Morenga’s sister, they stated, had suffered the same fate at Kawakawa Bay (Hicks Bay) near East Cape in the rohe of the Ngati Porou iwi. It was to be 12 years however, before Te Morenga and Hongi Hika accumulated sufficient muskets to ensure victory over the offending iwi and to exact the utu that custom demanded. (The Voyage of the Venus Pirates, 1806-1807) |
Cooked |
- In January 1818, Te Morenga led a fleet of war canoes south to Motiti, where
the kidnappers were besieged by land and sea.
- Armed only with rakau-Māori weapons of stone, bone and wood, the Ngaiterangi defenders eventually succumbed to the firepower of the northern musketeers.
- A great slaughter took place and Hukere was killed and several hundred survivors including his wife were taken back to the Bay of Islands as slaves.
| In January 1820, Te Morenga led an expedition against Te Waru at Tauranga and during two battles, many Ngaiterangi were killed by gunfire. With honour satisfied and peace arranged, Te Morenga returned to the Bay of Islands, taking with him with all Te Waru's canoes, 200 prisoners of war, and the toi moko (cured tattooed heads) of several chiefs. (The Voyage of the Venus Pirates, 1806-1807) |
Morenga facial tattoo |
- Eight years after the kidnapping of niece and sister by the Venus pirates, Te Morenga sketched this image of his own ta moko.
- Charlotte Badger’s story has inspired several works of fiction, and she has incorrectly lived on in tradition as a pirate and a mutineer, on the basis of inaccurate information.
She was a convict that was on the boat.
Musket arms |
- One convict pirate
was a great survivor, John Redmonds, a black veteran whaling sailor who piloted the Venus down the North Island’s east coast, was found living as a Pakeha-Māori at Mercer on the Waikato River during the 1860s and has left descendants.
His ‘Wanted’ description posted by the Sydney authorities in 1806 read: ‘broad nosed, thick lips, stout made, wears hair tied, and with holes in his ears, being accustomed to wear large ear-rings’, suggesting a pirate out of a story of the Spanish Main.
The actions of Redmonds and his fellow pirates however, cannot be romanticized. Their abduction, enslavement and sale of seven northern wahine rangatira, set in train a cycle of utu that escalated into New Zealand’s longest, and bloodiest conflict – the intertribal Musket Wars (1818-1839). (The Voyage of the Venus Pirates, 1806-1807) |
SS Māori encounters fog |
- SS Māori left Table Bay at 11:30 on the night of August 4,
1909, bound for New Zealand with a cargo consisting largely of
explosives.
- The night was very thick and rain was
falling in torrents, with a north-westerly gale.
- Soon
after leaving Table Bay, the vessel was driven inshore and
crashed upon the rocks near Duiker Point.
She had left Table Bay shortly before midnight after
recoaling, and sailed into drizzle and thickening fog as she
headed south towards Cape Point. Forty minutes later, with
her engines going at full speed, the Māori struck a rock,
which according to those aboard, seemed to stand well out
of the water.
Shrouded in dense fog the vessel had come
very close inshore and had unknowingly entered the bay
north of Duiker Point. The first intimation of danger was the
lookout’s warning cry, but by then the vessel was only about
thirty yards from the rock, and although her master, Captain
G Nichole, immediately ordered the wheel hard-a-port, the
Māori ran up on to the rock.
(Heidelberg University) |
Recovery efforts |
- The place
where the Māori went ashore was hidden from the coast road and
remote from habitation so it was several hours before someone
saw it.
- A fisherman finally noticed and he journeyed on foot
to the Capetown police station but they didn't understand what
he was saying because he spoke broken English so his message
wasn't communicated.
- Ultimately 32 of the crew of 53 were lost, including Captain
Nichole and all the navigating officers. The vessel was a
complete loss.
- When Jaques Cousteau dived on
the wreck of the Māori in the 1960s he declared that it was
the best preserved wreck of its type that he had seen.
-
The cargo remained intact until the 1960s.
- Watch out for the fog.
The authorities did not take immediate action. When they did, they found only 12 survivors on the wreck, all of whom were saved by the Rocket Brigade and by a fisherman named Messina, who crawled to the ship with a line.
Of a crew of 55 only 21 were saved, the captain being among the drowned. (wrecksite.eu) |
Cyclone Gabrielle |
- The extreme rainfall, combined with high tide just before 1am, caused widespread flooding throughout the night.
- In the wake of historic storms, the Māori say New Zealand must center Indigenous peoples in climate disaster plans.
- Pygmy tradition associated with Māori cosmology, shares elements of the Little People mythology of Ireland, including matching mound structures and common folk traditions.
- When Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand in February 2023, it unveiled two massive fossils of marine reptiles who lived 80 million years ago.
Polluted Waikato River |
- Drinking water from the heavily polluted Waikato
River.
- Giant bubbles in the Waikato River, "backwash'' from a nearby water treatment plant.
Karu Tahi
(Cyclops) |
- Karu Tahi, the one-eyed taniwha, is one of three mythical creatures which live along the Waikato River.
- Transit New Zealand agreed to reroute the highway to allay their concerns.
- Ono
whitu.
- Cyclops are the administrators of Satan.
Its lair is a small swampy area about 1km south of the Meremere power station beside State Highway One, surrounded by a grove of protected kahikatea trees, lush grass and noisy cicadas - and right in the middle of the new Waikato expressway.
(nzherald.co.nz) |
AI crime victim gazing out of a window |
- New Zealand’s National party has admitted using artificial intelligence to generate people in their attack advertisements.
-
Is artificial intelligence laying a pathway for MORI data sovereignty?
- How AI is helping revitalise indigenous languages.
The ads included images of a group of robbers storming a jewellery store, two nurses of Pacific island descent, and an apparent crime victim gazing out of a window.
(theguardian.com) |
Wheelchair - tūru wīra |
- The Ogo, a wheelchair prototype made in New Zealand.
- Wheelchair Dancer in the Sky.
- Rodney Bell's wheelchair dance tours Australia.
- New Zealand's Wheelchair Rugby Team Performs Haka War Cry at Invictus Games.
- Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People.
Rooftop tent |
- Rooftop Tents Designed in New Zealand.
- Take camping to new heights!
Golden Fleece Wool |
-
Golden Fleece golden wool, combining wool fibres with pure gold using nanoscience
which takes on hues of purple, mauve and grey.
|
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