Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art has arrived, the most comprehensive survey of mahi toi ever created. A weighty 600 pages richly illustrated, it sweeps through the centuries, covering the creations of long-gone tūpuna right up to those of the present day. Whether whakairo (carving), kākahu (textiles), photography or digital arts, all mediums are presented. The authors bring peerless knowledge to the project -- Māori art and architecture historian Professor Deidre Brown (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu), art historian Ngarino Ellis (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou) and the late art historian and curator Jonathan Mane-Wheoki CNZM (Ngāpuhi, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kuri). Mane-Wheoki died 10 years ago but the project’s necessarily long gestation meant Ellis and Brown could build on his writing and research. The book is dedicated to him as “collaborator, colleague, mentor, friend and whanaunga”.

Extracted here with permission are images and edited text from “Ngā Taonga o Wharawhara: Body Adornment” (chapter 6). In her text, Ellis notes that the first European visitors to Aotearoa were avid collectors of adornments. As well as being visibly and aesthetically Māori, they were highly portable. A 2021 report identified 3446 such works, and their containers, in 88 museums globally.

A hei tiki pounamu with eyes of sealing wax and a large hei tiki pounamu, probably made from an adze blade. Both are in the collection of the University of Cambridge.

A necklace of moa bones shaped to resemble whale teeth, from Southland. (Southland Museum & Art Gallery)

Formal attire in the 18th century for a rangatira. Among his adornments, the heru (comb), three feathers in his topknot, whalebone kōauau (flute) around his neck and kahu kurῑ (dogskin cloak) all reinforce his status. Image: Sydney Parkinson’s A New Zealand Warrior in his Proper Dress, & Compleatly Armed, According to their Manner, engraved by Thomas Chambers, 1784 (Alexander Turnbull Library).

Pōria (rings) of pounamu and bone were made in the 18th century to secure pet birds (Te Papa)

Right, composite wood and fibre heru (combs) were worn in the 18th century. The one-piece wooden heru features a manaia face with pāua inlay in the eye (both in Te Papa).

This palm-sized rei niho (whale tooth pendant) was unearthed after a storm in Whangamumu, Northland. It has many important early Māori stylistic traits, including two figures in a “standing” stance (Auckland War Memorial Museum).

Pacific antecedents of Māori adornment including, from left, a Pacific breastplate of tridacna shell and plant fibre cord (Te Papa); a Fijian breastplate made from pearl shell, sperm whale ivory, tapa and plant fibre (British Museum); a Tongan breastplate, which, like the Fijian one, features whalebone with serrated edges (British Museum).

A kōrere ( funnel), which was used to feed moko recipients with puréed food and fresh water because skin swollen from the procedure was at risk of infection (Te Papa)

Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art, by Deidre Brown and Ngarino Ellis, with Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (Auckland University Press, RRP $99.99), is on sale now.