A tiki tour of our heritage

Te tu a te wahine, acrylic on hessian by Arnold Manaaki Wilson.

Visiting friends during the long weekend, I noticed an oversized hei tiki mounted on a wall. Could it be one of the hei tiki presented to the Beatles when they arrived here in 1964?

Apart from one interview archived online, in which Ringo Starr jokes about burying the unwieldy plastic trinkets at the airport for luck, an internet search for the Beatles' hei tiki reveals a distinct lack of information on what must be a sought-after piece of kiwiana.

If any of the Beatles' tiki had found their way into a New Zealand collection, chances are Auckland Art Gallery curators Ngahiraka Mason and Jane Davidson would have found them in the extensive tiki tour they took to research the Te Hei Tiki exhibition, which opens this weekend.

As they travelled the country they found the once-ubiquitous plastic tiki elusive, although they did eventually find an Air New Zealand tiki in an antique store near Christchurch.

"Hei tiki specifically refers to tiki that are worn around the neck," explains Davidson, who is still hoping for at least a photo of the Beatles' arrival for the exhibition. "We have got one of the huge plastic tiki. We would like to think it is one the Beatles were given. It is just enormous.

"That is one of the interesting things I have discovered about hei tiki. For Maori, size isn't what counts. It's to do with the quality of the carving and the history. Interestingly, a lot of hei tiki grew in size after European contact because that's what Europeans demanded.

"We were blown away by just how many types of hei tiki there are. The styles change so much across the country. I think a lot of people carry an idea of what a hei tiki looks like in their head, and I didn't find one that looked anything like it. It's interesting the way pop culture and kitsch have influenced our idea of how these things look."

 

Before working at the Auckland Art Gallery, Davidson completed a masters degree at the Courtauld Institute in London, followed by a three-month unpaid internship at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She says the V&A has a reputation for being old-fashioned so it is bringing in contemporary art as a way to link with the collection.

Te Hei Tiki works in a similar manner, although in this case it is a contemporary gallery introducing traditional taonga to widen the conversations within an exhibition.

Te Hei Tiki takes in the various ways the hei tiki has become a contemporary New Zealand icon in tourism, art and fashion. Davidson says the usage and stories associated with hei tiki are an important part of the show, which traces usage to the Te Puawaitanga period (1500-1800).

"It is considered to be a flowering period of Maori art in a similar way to the Renaissance. Unfortunately, a lot of hei tiki entering museums have gone in via Pakeha routes so the stories have been lost. But there are examples where we do have the whakapapa or the genealogy.

"Hei tiki in the Maori context gain all their meaning from knowing who has worn them. Te Maungarongo is a hei tiki that passed through Te Kooti's hands so it has a really interesting story. It travelled through several tribes and is a token of peace."

Another find was a wooden hei tiki at the Govett Brewster, carved by Len Lye in 1922. As artists such as Picasso were looking to African forms, Lye was combining traditional Maori forms with European modernism.

"We were also interested in the way hei tiki have almost become a Pakeha icon as well, and there is difficulty with that," says Davidson. "Some people don't feel comfortable with it but it is such an entrenched part of who we have become that you can't not tell that part of the story."

The fairy-light tiki in Ponsonby shoe store Minnie Cooper's Christmas window display are evidence of how universal the motif has become.

And as recently as 1992, Dick Frizzell sparked debate on cultural appropriation with his exhibition that used the tiki motif to question definitions of Maori art.

"I think it is fair to say that the 1992 show was probably the most significant thing I've ever done, or probably ever will do," says Frizzell.

"I was just the right person in the right place, with the right skills, contacts and background to present a coherent and pretty much unassailable argument about how cultures evolve and can't be ringfenced or copywritten. "Years of table-thumping dinner-table debates set me up for the foray. And my three working rules - nothing is sacred, everything is up for grabs and never ask permission - gave me the licence.

"I know that the cultural climate has changed since then - witness the snappy new Workshop Tiki belt buckle - and changed for the better. It's much healthier and I'm pretty proud to have had something to do with it."

Exhibition

*What: Te Hei Tiki
*Where and when: New Gallery, Jun 11-Sep 4