From the MTG: Bringing the huia back into the light

Two works by Ngāti Kahungunu artist Fiona Pardington have been gifted to the Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust collection.

We’re thrilled to announce that two works by Ngāti Kahungunu artist Fiona Pardington have been gifted to the Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust collection.

Fiona and her representatives, Starkwhite Gallery, have donated the work pictured, and the MTG Foundation has funded the purchase of a second work, Manawarahi Female Huia, MTG Hawke’s Bay. The actual feathers and female huia, subjects of these fine works, are held in the trust’s collection.

A finalist in Forest & Bird’s Bird of the Century, the huia has been extinct now for more than 100 years. MTG is supporting and championing the huia for Bird of the Century and we’d love you to help us by voting for the huia through the Forest & Bird website or simply search for “bird of the century”. Please tell your friends and whānau and help us get the spectacular huia recognised in this way.

To say that the huia bird is culturally and symbolically charged is an understatement. Its mana and significance is underlined by the story of its whakapapa, which sets it apart from other birds that dwelt in the realm of Tāne-mahuta. The huia is a sacred bird.

At one time the bird was worn by rangatira and their whānau as a symbol of mana. Feathers were worn in the hair, dried skins and heads worn from the ears. Walter Buller noted about the heads, “the beaks of which, hanging down all round and coming into contact make a rattling sound as the wearer moves about”.

“These are called pōtae huia and only a woman of high rank would presume to wear one.”

To an extent, huia numbers declined through the early days of Māori settlement in Aotearoa, the birds being traded across the country in return for other valuables.

Taku Tahu, MTG Hawke's Bay 2022, by Fiona Pardington. Collection of Hawke's Bay Museums Trust, Ruawharo Tā-ū-rangi.

Sadly, for the huia, its distinctive beak was prized by European collectors too, and international trade of the birds in the 19th century led to its numbers declining even further. In 1901, the gift of a huia feather to the heir to the British throne made the feathers so widely desired it ultimately set in place the bird’s extinction. The last huia seen were two males and a female, in 1907.

Like a rescue operation, Fiona is concerned with giving the huia new life. The act of photographing them brings them into the light, back into the living world and reinvests them with mauri.

As a symbol of rangatira too, the feather seen at such a large scale makes a statement about the allocation of wealth and power in this country. Like time travellers, they’re reminders of a place where Māori were rangatira and able to govern themselves in their own lands.

Last week, I wrote about the new collection access and storage facility in Hastings. As a reference to the sacredness of the huia, the outside of this building, along Queen St East and Hastings St North, will be faced in a protective cloak of large-scale steel huia feathers, each 6m high.

These significant feathers, glowing at night, will turn the building into a Hawke’s Bay landmark. Each feather will be laser engraved with a single name: be it an individual, a family or an organisation. The names of 80 generous supporters will be preserved permanently, a record of the people who understand the value of protecting and caring for Hawke’s Bay’s collection of precious objects and taonga. Contact https://www.themtgfoundation.com if you’d like to support this heritage project and donate a feather.

In the meantime, we’re wishing the best of luck to the huia becoming the Bird of the Century. You still have a chance to see these photographs in all their glory, in Tāku Huia Kaimanawa – Fiona Pardington, on display at the museum until December 3.