Louis Auguste de Sainson was the official artist aboard Captain Dumont d’Urville’s Astrolabe. He spent three months in New Zealand in 1827 on a maritime mapping survey between Tasman Bay and the Bay of Islands, followed by a month in Tonga. A substantial publication on d’Urville’s 1826–29 voyages through Asia and the Pacific was published in Paris in 1833, profusely illustrated by lithographic prints after de Sainson’s drawings.

D’Urville and his crew had close contact with people they met, including the Totaranui chief Tehinui (or Tehi-Noui) and his travelling companion Kokiore (or Koki-Hore) depicted in print 2, who were sketched by de Sainson after coming aboard at Palliser Bay (near present-day Wellington). Tehinui and Kokiore at first both intended to reach Europe, but instead disembarked at Tolaga Bay, later finding their own way home. In summarising his portrait sketching process, de Sainson later recalled: “What I was doing caused a lot of laughter; every minute they tried to escape me.” (Kā Honoka, 18 December 2015 – 28 August 2016)

George French Angas was an English traveller, artist, natural historian and ethnographer. In 1844, he spent four months exploring Te Ika-a-Māui (the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand), also visiting Tōtara-nui (Queen Charlotte Sound) at the top of Te Waipounamu (the South Island). Although Angus represented Māori in a sentimental light, he believed in British superiority over indigenous cultures, which places his work within the canon of colonial representation of New Zealand. Pātaka (storehouses) and whata (elevated platforms) were predominantly used for storing food, seeds, tools and other valuables.

I [top left] This smaller pātaka is for housing seeds; a potato store sits behind. The location is a kāika (village) led by rangatira (chief) Te Pahe, in the Ahu Ahu area near New Plymouth. II [top right] The adornment of a structure within Māori custom reflects the status of the individual it was made for. This pātaka painted with red ochre and adorned with carving and feathers belonged to a rangatira from Te Rapa kāika on the shores of Lake Taupō. The mana of this rangatira was such that his food was tapu and needed to be stored separately. III [bottom, centre] The main pātaka in the composition belonged to Hepi Te Heuheu, the seventh paramount rangatira of Ngāti Tūwharetoa. IV [bottom, right] A pātaka of Te Rangihaeata, a rangatira of Ngāti Toa and nephew of Te Rauparaha. V [bottom, left] A woman beats flax with a stone pestle, an early part of the process of preparing flax for weaving. Note the palisade behind her. VI [centre, right] Kākā were popular domestic pets. They could be trained to talk (although not as well as the tūī) and were also used to attract other birds for easy hunting.

(Our Collection: 19th and 20th Century New Zealand Art, 2018)

“My visit to this spot, for the purpose of making the drawing of the tomb … was made from the water by stealth, and was attended with some difficulty and danger,” George French Angas later recalled about sketching here in 1844. Huriwhenua was a rangatira (chief) of Ngāti Rāhiri, Te Atiawa (allied to Ngāti Toa) and had been a signatory of the Treaty of Waitangi in this location four years earlier.

(Out of Time, 23 September 2023 – 28 April 2024)