Title: Making New Zealand vol 01 no 02: The Maori

Author: Centennial Branch, Department of Internal Affairs

Editor: Eric Hall McCormick

Publication details: Centennial Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, 1939, Wellington

Part of: The New Zealand Centennial Publications

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Canoes Embodied Traditional Art and Were Finely Carved

When the ancestors of the Maori arrived in New Zealand their vessels were probably large outrigger canoes of the type common, even to-day, in the Polynesian islands of the Pacific. But the Maori found in his new home large timber from which a big canoe could be cut. With the addition of a top-strake the canoe would be fit for sea-faring. Both the double canoe and the outrigger canoe gradually fell into disuse. Cook saw both types of canoe during his visits to New Zealand. Thereafter, however, the single wide-beam canoe displaced the other forms of Polynesian canoe as far as the Maori were concerned.

The Maori were expert canoe builders. A suitable tree was felled by partial burning and chipping with the stone adze. Along a path made from forest to sea, the tree was hauled on skids by the combined man-power of the tribe. By the sea the real work of making a canoe began. The inside was adzed out. Elaborately carved stern-piece and bow-piece were fashioned, finished, and fitted to the hull of the canoe. Bailer and masts, sails and paddles were wrought according to traditional design. Finally the canoe was launched with befitting priestly ceremonial.

Large ornamented war canoes were from 60 to 100 feet long with a beam of perhaps seven feet. Plainer, rougher canoes were used for fishing and river work. They were rarely carved or decorated.

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