With its boldly striated plumage, muscular stance and stern gaze, this lithograph renders the extinct whēkau (laughing owl) with both anatomical precision and eerie charisma. The ferns and limestone outcrops in the background place it unmistakably in Te Waipounamu, the South Island, its only known breeding range. In te ao Māori, the whēkau was a bird of ill omen, its uncanny, cackling cry said to signal death or disaster. Many iwi, including Kāi Tahu, associated the bird with te Pō, and oral traditions describe it as a messenger between worlds. Its tapu status across many iwi was tied to its rarity and spiritual associations; a bird whose role in the cosmology of the land extended beyond the physical. By the early twentieth century, the whēkau had vanished due to habitat destruction and the introduction of predators. This image stands as both record and requiem.

—Lauren Hollingsworth-Smith, writer, artist and poet

te ao Māori ~ the Māori world

Kāi Tahu ~ tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu, the South Island

iwi ~ tribes

te Pō ~ perpetual night, the spiritual realm

tapu ~ sacred