Maori carving lecture

Pacific art, culture and heritage academic Nicholas Thomas will deliver a lecture, entitled Tene Waitere: Maori Carving and Colonial History, at The University of Auckland.

Nicholas Thomas is Professor of Historical Anthropology and Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography at the University of Cambridge, England. His research on history and art in the Pacific has ranged from early contacts between Islanders and Europeans through colonial encounters to contemporary art. His books include Entangled Objects (1991), Oceanic Art (1995), and Discoveries: the voyages of Captain Cook (2003).

Professor Thomas will deliver a public lecture entitled Tene Waitere: Maori Carving and Colonial History. The presentation, based on his forthcoming book, Rauru, will examine the life and works of Tene Waitere (1854-1931), one of the greatest Maori carvers of the colonial period.

Waitere was the first Ngati Tarawhai artist to produce a major corpus of material for European clients. He carved also for his whanau, iwi, and for other Maori, but he made many important works, ranging from small pieces such as walking sticks to full-scale carved houses for individual tourists, ethnologists, collectors, and hotel owners.

Rauru is a text-image collaboration between Australian-born Professor Thomas and New Zealand documentary photographer Mark Adams. It will feature approximately 100 images by Mark Adams, essays by Nicholas Thomas, and two extended interviews, one with James Schuster, Tene Waitere's great-grandson, and another with Lyonel Grant, a leading contemporary Maori carver, who brings the fascinating insights of a practitioner.
The project has been supported by the British Academy, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, and Trinity College, Cambridge.

“It is an honour to host this distinguished scholar, whose work is so fascinating for anyone interested in the Pacific and Maori art, carving and cultural traditions,” says Distinguished Professor of Maori Studies Dame Anne Salmond.”

“Nicholas Thomas’s recent work has shifted the international focus on Maori and Pacific arts away from ‘art objects’ and towards makers and making. His extensive research networks within The University of Auckland has led to this presentation opportunity,” says Dr Deidre Brown, an authority on Maori carving at the School of Architecture and Planning.

More Information

Professor Nicholas Thomas will deliver Tene Waitere: Maori Carving and Colonial History at 3pm on Wednesday 20 May in The University of Auckland Conference Centre (22 Symonds St). The lecture is free and open to the public.
Rauru, a linked exhibition of Mark Adams’ photographs open at Two Rooms Gallery in Newton, Auckland, on Thursday 21 May.