The book also realises her strong commitment to providing historical and visual research for practising artists.
Dr Ellis's book has won four major awards — the Ockham Judith Binney Award for Best First Book Illustrated Non-Fiction (2017), the Te Mahi Toi/Arts Award (2017), the inaugural Best First Book Award (2017), and the Prize for Maori and Pacific Art Writing (2018).
“I wrote the book because at that stage (in 2000) no one had written about Ngati Porou carving.”
Then in 2006 two works on exactly that subject came out, one a doctoral thesis by Bob Jahnke and the other, a book by David Simmons on meeting houses of Ngati Porou.
‘So I changed my focus,” Dr Ellis said.
“I started looking at carvings from an art history point of view, while they looked at it from a carvers' point of view and an anthropology view.”
She decided to look at the big picture of Ngati Porou carving in the 100 years between 1830 and 1930.
“I found in the 1820s there were accounts of lots of carvings around the Waiapu River even though most carvings were destroyed or hidden during the Ngapuhi raids.
“We have so little that has come from that early period despite knowing from oral accounts and early missionary reports that there were lots of carvings along the Waiapu. We have about four carvings that are pre-1860s.
“Learning that made me think, what is the story behind this, how and what helped push the carvers to start carving again after the 1860s? What was their drive to keep carving and building?” she said.
The book took five years to put together, with images from Natalie Robertson.
Trying to find information about carvers from that time was hard as there were no biographies or photos of them.
“I became a kind of detective by looking at what was on the East Coast and equally importantly, what was in museums.”
She discovered a complete meeting house from Tokomaru Bay, in the Canterbury Museum. The house, Hau Te Ana Nui o Tangaroa, dates from 1860.
“It really needs $1 million to be restored and I would like to see it, at least, back in Gisborne,” Dr Ellis said.
Receiving the award had made her feel that her research is being recognised at a national level.
“It's humbling to get this award, we don't research or write to get the spotlight, we do it to try to shed a new light on different areas and share what we might have the privilege of seeing.
“I love researching this area and Maori art in general. My lifetime goal is to get to understand the global collections of taonga.”
Future projects for Dr Ellis include a book on Maori art history called Toi Te Mana, written with Deirdre Brown (Ngapuhi, Ngati Kahu), due out next year, and she started a project in March about Maori body adornment.
She said not many Maori are in art history and she would like to see more people “in the space”.
“It's not a white privilege area like most people think it is, but it is something that is increasingly indigenous.”
“I want to encourage more Maori into the workforce. I want more Maori to think of art history as a career choice.”
