This entry was posted on 12/8/2006 2:22 AM and is filed under New Zealand.
About a half hour walk from our hotel was a very large
park, and the Auckland Museum sat atop the hill in the middle of it, surveying
all the town. (Of course, the walk took us through the very chic
neighborhood of Parnell, with great window shopping, art galleries and
interesting ethnic restaurants, all mixed together - a nice walk!)
Our exploration of the Museum was focused on their Maori
collection. What surprised us was the detail of the pieces we
saw... delicate carvings, all done with simple bone and rock
tools. We were grateful that photography was allowed inside the Museum...
Check out the intricacy of this headband - all little bitty shells strung together...
An entire ancestral home complete with carvings was inside the Museum. You removed your shoes before you went inside...
These fishing hooks were made shells and bone. And the rope or twain was made out of human hair...
You see little replicas of these jade carvings sold everywhere as
necklaces. The ones in the Museum showed a map of New Zealand and
where each district of Maori people had their own unique variety of these
figures associated with it. Here are a couple of the better ones...
Here's a drawing showing people around a Pataka (see description below).
Then here's a full scale one they were able to bring into the museum as is ...
This carving....
looks just like these Maori guys, right?
We look forward to exploring more of this culture as we travel the country, but this was a nice introduction for us.
