Maori-Hawaiian ties

celebrated at Bishop

The recent “Celebrating the Maori” exhibition in Honolulu combined art works from the Bishop Museum collection with photographs of Maori carvings by New Zealander Brian Brake.

Conceived to honor the 50th anniversary of Te Rangi Hiroa’s (Sir Peter Buck’s) directorship of the Bishop Museum, the exhibition featured pieces from Buck’s personal collection and Maori art works collected in the 19th century by Eric Craig.

This exhibition gave the U.S. yet another opportunity to view Maori art (in addition to the Te Maori show currently in San Francisco).

But the direct interaction be tween the Maori and their cousins the Hawaiians made the Bishop’s opening unique and underscored the special meaning behind the exhibition.

For the first time in many years the Maori greeting cry karananga was answered by a Hawaiian greeting chant

heahea , especially reactivated by Honolulu’s Hawaiian com munity for the occasion. Other old customs such as the honi (nose touching), the giving of leis, and the presentation of traditional Maori and Hawaiian songs and dances continued well into the night, making the opening a true Polynesian-style celebration.

However, perhaps the best vignette to illustrate the spirit of the Bishop’s Maori exhibition was the sight of an elderly Maori woman wearing her kiwi feather cape standing in front of the display case containing the kiwi feather cape of Te Rangi Hiroa (himself of Maori and European parents). The Maori lady was deep in conversation with her Hawaiian counterpart a woman dressed in a mumu with feather lei, and for an instant it was hard to tell where the museum exhibit left off, and

the present began.

Caroline

Yacoe.

Tekoteko figure from the gable of a meeting house in Rotorua, New Zealand. The tekoteko represents the ancestor after whom the house was named. Eric Craig Collection purchased 1891. - Photo courtesy of Bishop Museum.

Maori group at opening of Bishop Museum’s Maori-Hawaiian exhibition in Honolulu. - Caroline Yacoe photo.