B.

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)

William Baker was a second generation New Zealander, born and raised in Wellington, who began his working life as an upholsterer. Most likely a self-taught artist, he exhibited first with the Fine Art Association in 1883 and went on to exhibit at many of the significant institutions of the time. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Baker had become a self-supporting professional artist, touring New Zealand for his subject matter. In this work we see various whare (houses) with a larger whare wānanga (meeting house) and raised pātaka (storehouse), which shows the distinctive ochre pigment frequently used in the adornment of Māori architecture. (March 2018)

Charles Barraud visited the Maori pa at Lake Horowhenua, a freshwater coastal lake near present-day Levin, in 1864. A London-born pharmacist, Barraud arrived in New Zealand with his family in 1849 and established a chemist shop in Lambton Quay, Wellington. As his business prospered, he travelled throughout New Zealand to sketch and paint.

Barraud’s watercolour record of the Muaupoko iwi settlement at the edge of the lake includes a prominently positioned pataka (storehouse), painted with kura (natural red earth pigment). Lake Horowhenua was once a treasured source of food (mainly eels, whitebait, flounder and shellfish) for its Maori owners.