Māori Markings

Tā moko is the unique Māori art of marking the skin with connecting patterns that tell of prestige, authority and identity. To receive and wear moko is a great cultural privilege. Māori Markings: Tā Moko explores this tradition, from its origin in the legend of Mataora and Niwareka and the earliest European records of the practice to its contemporary resurgence from the 1990s. Important early Māori sculpture, nineteenth-century prints, painting and photography and contemporary photography trace the story of this unique cultural art form.

The portraits in the exhibition span the past two hundred and fifty years and include images of men and women influential in Māori history. Visitors will have the chance to discover some of the first illustrations of Māori people, made during Captain Cook's voyages. Pictures of chiefs who travelled the world in the early nineteenth century, such as Hongi Hika, are among the treasures on display, as are portraits of signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi and of those who openly defied the colonial government during New Zealand's land wars of the mid-nineteenth century.