Who will make it on to the New Year Honours List this year?
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CliveErnestFugill
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori art.
For someone who was told at high school he’d never amount to anything, master carver Clive Fugill has done quite well for himself.
In the New Year Honours today, the 74-year-old has been made a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori art after spending nearly six decades learning, teaching and becoming a respected master of his craft.
His reaction is typical of those who humbly go about their work.
“The message came through on email. I was actually quite shocked. I never expected that ... when I studied it, I couldn’t believe it because it’s just under a knighthood.”
Master carver Clive Fugill said it was the highlight of his career being recognised at the Best Design Awards. Photo / Stephen Parker
It is also quite a feat to be acknowledged for Māori art considering he has spent a lifetime reassuring people he is Māori, and not to be fooled by his fair skin.
Fugill once told the Rotorua Daily Post he would keep a photograph of five generations of his family on his desk at work - at the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute in Rotorua - for anyone who would question his heritage.
The Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Rangiwewehi descendant said he might only have 1/32nd of Māori blood running through his veins, but in his words “that’s the strongest part of me”.
So strong in fact, the tōhunga whakairo (master carver) has produced work of international renown, including for royalty.
Te Puia carver Clive Fugill and Prime Minister John Key at Te Puia in 2010.
There was a carved box he made for the now King Charles during his visit in the 1970s, a carved box he presented to Queen Elizabeth while she was in Rotorua with the Duke of Edinburgh in 1995 and a teka (stick) which was laid at the feet of Prince Harry and wife Meghan during their 2018 trip to Rotorua and in 2018.
Fugill told the Rotorua Daily Post this week he was never an academic achiever.
“But if there was an art prize around, I’d get it.”
In the beginning ... Clive Fugill is third from left in this picture from 1967. Photo / Supplied
His artistic skills never impressed his secondary school teachers though, one of whom he will always remember for mocking him and calling him “dumb”.
“He said to me you will never amount to anything, you will always be a failure ... I’m not sure if he was trying to motivate me or what.”
But it was another teacher who told him his world would open up when he could read a book.
And that was when Fugill discovered there was more to his ability. In 1962, Fugill’s parents gave him a set of carving tools and books on Māori wood carving. The studying began.
The late Rotorua historian Don Stafford would write articles in the Rotorua Daily Post and Fugill would cut them out and put them in boxes he kept with other pieces of Māori history - all good references for his carvings.
The carving school's first intake, Clive Fugill (left), Tutu Honotapu, Hone Taiapa (teacher), Wallace Hetaraka, Kapua Riini, Hoani Korako Arahanga, James Rickard, and Jimmy Fergus. Photo / Supplied
In 1966, Fugill applied for the institute’s carving school. The institute sent someone to his house for an interview - something that apparently wasn’t common practice. Fugill always suspected it was because the school didn’t believe he was Māori.
After an involved chat about one of his carvings - complete with Fugill rattling off the Māori history of the piece - the interviewer left the Fugill home having jotted down the words “highly recommended” in his notebook.
Fugill started as a student in 1967. After his graduation he became a tutor, before leading the school from 1983 to 1995.
He stayed as the longest-serving staff member until May this year when he decided perhaps it was time to slow down.
It wasn’t long though until he was lured back as a “contractor”, which he now does two days a week.
Fugill has kept his ancestors’ stories alive through his carving by creating hundreds of pieces over the years. He was a key contributor to the carved stage for Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival and his carvings have been gifts on behalf of New Zealand to many world leaders.
Clive Fugill has been made a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Photo / Kelly Makiha
When asked what his favourite work had been, Fugill settles on the task of creating the carvings for his own meeting house at Te Puna in Tauranga, Tutereinga.
It was a special project because he had the responsibility of researching the history as well. He said it would always be special because it was for his own people.
Along the way there have been many other notable moments. He has served on Creative New Zealand’s Te Waka Toi panel and collected awards including the Ngā Tohu Toi award in Tauranga in 2022 from his iwi and winning the Designers Institute of New Zealand John Britten Black Pin in 2019.
Fugill’s citation said he had inspired a generation of Māori artists while working to uphold the mana of whakairo rākau (Māori wood carving), but Fugill quietly grins whenever you mention how good he is at what he does.
“You never think you’re going to get one of these awards yourself. I feel humbled, honoured and thankful.”
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
