CAG on museums: Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland again…

Sunny but deceptive 

Ice sculpture in the streets of Perth

During my ongoing sojourn in the North, I have been discovering many little gems dotted around the lovely countryside. Just last week I was in freezing Perth, Scotland to go through some of their ethnography collections with the curators of the National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh. There is a Pacific Collections Review being conducted in Scotland (http://pacificcollectionsreview.wordpress.com/) with headquarters at National Museums Scotland, and they are looking at collections all over the Scottish countryside. Eve Haddow is the Pacific Review Curator conducting this research and because of my work with Maori collections over the years, she invited me to see what new things we could explore in Perth.

Maori flute (pu torino), Ramsay piece donated 1842, Whanganui

Flute carving detail

I can’t claim to be such a Maori object expert that when I see objects I can name their age, origin, and back story, but one day... I do look at Maori objects and see nothing but an amazing story, ancestral heritage, and interesting exchange/gift/removal history that I want to delve into.

A lot of the collections amassed in Perth were brought into the museum through the Perth Literary and Antiquarian Society members. The Society was established in 1784 and collected more than Scottish antiquities to include natural history and world ethnography. The most significant early objects were given by David Ramsay (1794-1860) and there were also later donations of Pacific material from J.H Dixon in 1917, A. Wilson in 1940, and L. Woodward in the 1950s.

Naturalistic Ngati Porou house panel or pou pou
exhibited at Crystal Palace in 1867

Some of the Perth objects are described as ‘unfinished’, which is an issue I find amazingly interesting for Maori objects. If something was actually unfinished, what does that say about the relationship of the giver/carver to the person receiving the object?

Whalebone ivory comb or heru, Ramsay piece donated 1842
Described as 'unfinished'

Obviously many exchanges of goods were to art dealers who sold Maori objects on to collectors, and several of these exchanges are interesting because of the extent to which objects don't look like typical Maori objects. Sometimes European materials were added to objects by Maori and art dealers alike, but in particular one piece in Perth seemed to be changed to a much further extent than usual. The Ramsay staff or taiaha below has traces of feathers, hair labelled human hair when usually the white dog hair was included, but there is also an under layer of red cloth and newspaper(?). Definitely intriguing. I’d love to know about other examples like this.

Staff or taiaha, Taranaki region, Ramsay piece donated 1842

Detail of red cloth and possible newspaper?

Detail of upper taiaha binding

There were also many different waka huia or papa hou or treasure boxes. These containers would hold the most treasured items such as hei tiki greenstone pendants or huia bird feathers, and would be hung from the rafters of the house to be seen from below.

Bay of Plenty region waka huia, also Ramsay donation

Lid of Gisborne waka huia, Dixon collection 1917

Bottom of above container

And then… we saw the ONLY relatively intact cloak with kakapo bird (parrot) feathers still attached. It was a very exciting few days- a testament to my true nerd factor.

Top side of the feather cloak or kahu kakapo, South Island 18th century
Also Ramsay collection

.

Underside of kahu kakapo where one can see the
contours in woven panels to fit over the body.Every cloak
was made for a specific person to fit them

Archaeological findings on early New Zealanders and Maori culture

Whanganui River valley

Some very interesting biological archaeology finds have been published from research conducted at the University of Otago, New Zealand. The research looked at the human remains, known as koiwi tangata, of early New Zealanders who traveled to the Malborough region 700 years ago.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130516105700.htm

Mt. Ruapehu, Mt. Ngāuruhoe, Mt. Tongariro

Though the article covers the complexities of carbon ratios, dietary makeup, and isotopes gauged from the remains, aside from the deeper scientific importance, of key interest to me were the archaeological materials found in the graves of three different groups. The evidence suggested that the groups were hunter gatherers who possibly used the burial site at Wairau Bar as a ceremonial place. The burials themselves were very telling about one group in particular, from the position of internment to the grave goods discovered, such as whale bone and moa eggs. It is possible the findings ‘may represent the roots of the tangihanga ritual, in which Maori are buried in their ancestral lands, developing among these first New Zealanders’.

Koriniti marae

The Maori practice of the tangihanga, or tangi, takes place on the marae or family home and acts as the ceremonial remembrance for ancestors who have passed away. The ceremony allows families to gather to remember the deceased and commemorate the dead. During the tangi, photographs are placed around the body and both the visual images of ancestral kin and the body are addressed as if they were living. This embodiment of life within pictures and the objects of importance to the deceased, displays the significance of objects to community memory. These archaeological findings have wider importance to understandings of early Polynesian life both socially and culturally.

Auckland, New Zealand