Whanganui Regional Museum Showcase: An artistic weapon

Museum exhibitions technician Mike Williamson has chosen this rifle for the Whanganui Regional Museum Showcase. Photo / Paul Brooks

The subject of this month’s Whanganui Regional Museum Showcase is a rifle, chosen by museum exhibitions technician Mike Williamson.

It is a carbine of 1858 vintage, but this one is intricately carved from the butt end of the stock to the other, making it a curiously deadly work of Māori art.

“The item I have chosen is the Calisher and Terry carbine, 30-bore, percussion-capped breech-loading rifle with a fully carved stock and butt of Māori designs, used in the New Zealand Wars,” says Mike. “This item stood out because I look at this musket and I see a melding of two cultures, when these two cultures were at odds with each other.”

European technology was brought here by whalers and traders, but this specific weapon was brought to equip British soldiers engaged in the New Zealand Wars.

“So you’ve got that technology, then Māori adding their own carvings to give it spirit and give it more power.”

This rifle was captured from the British by one of the Māori band serving Te Kooti, but there is no record of who donated it to the museum.

Mike says that between 1863 and 1864, 1000 of the rifles were imported into New Zealand.

“I could imagine a skilled Māori carver acquiring this and thinking the wooden stock would be a perfectly prepared blank surface to work on. Being familiar with this rifle, I thought it would be appropriate to see what it would look like without the carvings, and, well, it looked naked and without any character - just a military tool.

“Although my understanding of traditional Māori carving is limited, I do find it immensely fascinating to study it from a design and craftmanship perspective. The ability to carve out the many types of symmetrical curved patterns to fit within an uneven surface such as this rifle would require a well-practiced, talented carver. Also, to note is the consistency of the depth and width of the carve throughout the rifle, which shows immense talent and tool experience.

“The carved elements on the rifle stock are called Takarangi spirals. The intersecting spirals represent the close bond between Ranginui (the Sky Father) and Papatuanuku (the Earth Mother). Just below the barrel, the carvings are called pakura, and are commonly used in relief carving.

“I am also drawn to this weapon because it reminds me of the weapons made for films that adorn the corridors of Wētā Workshop, where I recently finished working.”