Maori
My Inspiration for The Maori: Past, Present and Future
Prior the arrival of the Europeans, Maori literature, stories and legends were handed down both orally and through weavings and carvings. Some carvings are over 500 years old. A master carver was highly considered and the Maori believed that the gods created and communicated through the master carvers.
Having been brought up in New Zealand among Maori families and friends I grew to appreciate their artistic skills, oratory and the sheer beauty of the Maori language. Most importantly the Maori whom I grew up with never lost sight of the importance of their lands and the need to fight to regain them. It was a spiritual bond and a true appreciation with the natural beauty of New Zealand – a bond I shared and which has inspired me to create this painting.
Summary of Maori History
The Maori, a people of Polynesian origin are the native inhabitants of New Zealand, constituting around 16 percent of the population. The Maori originally immigrated to New Zealand around 1200 ad from the Cook Islands, Society Islands, and Marquesas Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Before the arrival of European colonists in the late 18th century, the Maori settled throughout New Zealand and developed a distinctive culture. Individuals specialized in different arts: poetry, oratory, tattooing, and the carving of wood, bone, and stone. Communal buildings were elaborately decorated with woodcarvings. Many Maori wore highly decorative personal ornaments such as charms and carved stone pendants.
In 1841 New Zealand officially became a colony of Britain and many European settlements were soon established. In the 1840s conflicts arose between the Maori and European colonizers over conflicting claims to land which escalated into the New Zealand Wars.
After these wars, many Maori lands were confiscated and the remaining Maori lands were unsuitable for farming. Generally they lived in small rural communities separated from the European settlements. The Maori population declined rapidly as a result of the wars and European diseases, to which they had little resistance. In the late 19th century, European settlers spoke of the Maori as a “dying race.”
In the 20th century the Maori population recovered. A cultural and political revival accompanied the increase in population. Some leaders, educated in both European and Maori traditions, formed the Young Maori Party at the beginning of the 20th century. The Young Maori Party quickly became adept at working within Western institutions, including the New Zealand Parliament, to achieve Maori aims.
In the late 1920s, carving, oratory, and other Maori arts flourished and a strong revival of cultural activity has continued to the present day. Maori claims to lands unjustly taken from them in the 19th century are still being debated and in 1995 the Queen of Great Britain, Elizabeth II, offered a formal apology and a promise of compensation to Maori tribes for “the loss of lives [and] the devastation of property and social life.”
