of vaka, schools and spray cans

The Ports of Auckland have been responsible for managing my weekends of late, what with Round the Bays a coupla weeks ago, and the Onehunga Festival last Saturday. I thoroughly enjoyed both, though, and I’m not complaining at all. In between the excellent Jamaican jerk pork with festival and the very nice performance by Unknown Peace, the highlights were the three conversations I had.

The first was with Ian Calhaem, who was at the festival with a traditional Pukapukan ‘vaka-ama’, an outrigger canoe. The traditional carving knowledge represented in this vaka was dying out, till the canoe carving festivals that started in 2007(?) in Rarotonga, and in which Ian was involved. Considered a huge success, this carving festival is becoming an annual event, giving new life to traditional knowledge forms. The particular vaka Ian had brought was used in Pukapuka for fishing and general cargo. One part I found rather amazing were the stitches that join the wood together. These are completely watertight, and are made so by a combination of fine carving skills, and various applications of ash and whale oil. While this particular one had no sails, there are larger ones that do.

While I am no luddite, I think it is a pity that we lose so much of traditional (often oral) knowledge in our headlong full-pelt scramble for modernity. It is good that the Ian Calhaems of the world remind us of what we could well lose if we are not careful.

Ian would, with the support of a master carver from Ngati Whatua (the local Maori tribe), like to have a similar carving festival in Auckland. This would be open for people to participate in, and a brilliant way to revive interest in this knowledge. What is currently missing is a log (or multiple logs) to carve the waka from. I understand his particular interest is in reviving knowledge of Maori river and lagoon canoes. He says even pine would do- anyone with a log or two to spare?

The second conversation was with Simon Hertnon, who is part of a group of people trying to prevent the Auckland City Council from uprooting Monte Cecilia school for an extension to a park. What got me thinking (and rather riled) was when he spoke of how a Councillor said that the new addition would make Monte Cecilia park the “jewel in the crown that is Auckland’s parks”. I, for one, have had quite enough of jewels and crowns. While I understand that there is something to be said for running a city like one would a business, and am a fan of more public spaces, I think it is ridiculous to treat communities as if they were billboards to attract investment.

The third conversation was again for proposed changes, though of a much more appealing nature. Glen Armstrong, who owns/operates the Onehunga and Ellerslie branches of the House of Travel was asking for petitions to be signed in favour of more street art/murals in the Onehanga community. “More art and less tagging” seemed to be his catchline. His own store in Onehanga had a mural on the (outside) wall, featuring the work of K-road based artists Cut Collective. While I could not take a look at his store, I have seen a few of the collective's pieces around town, and really love what they do.

While the art world seems to have come to terms with spray can painting as art, I am not sure if our communities are quite as welcoming yet. I was glad to see that he had four pages of signatures by about half way through the festival. If you are part of the Onehunga community, do pass this on- it would be good to see an entire community business district covered in murals! Honestly, isn't is about time we brought art *out of the museums and art galleries onto the streets?

So then, POAL, what have you got planned next?

forbidden tunes in forbidden places

A historically logical starting point for studying art in Aotearoa New Zealand is the rock art of the South Island. Maori came to Aotearoa New Zealand sometime around 900 A.D (Keith, 2007) though the majority of rock drawings found is thought to date about 500 years ago (Thompson, 1989). The carved rock art of the North Island is thought to have been made at a latter date, and does not have the stylistic unity of the South Island drawings (Dunn, 1972). There were a few fanciful theories advanced for their origin, from human sacrifice rituals to shipwrecked Tamil sailors (Keith, 2007), but there is little doubt now that these drawings were done by Maori tribes. Though tempting, it has been pointed out that comparisons with the rock art of Australia, Africa and Europe are unhelpful, unless done within the context of each particular culture (McCulloch).

The rock drawings were originally done in charcoal or in red ochre that was brought to the site. According to the Ngai Tahu Maori Rock Art Trust, "the rock art paint was made from animal or bird fat mixed with vegetable gum and soot or kokowai i.e. red ochre to make black or red paint. The pigment created was known to be particularly long-lasting, and was referred to as, 'an ink that would stand forever'" (Ngāi Tahu Māori Rock Art Trust, 2009). Over the years, they have been the target of vandals, some of whom were well meaning if foolish. Apart from vandals, though, not much attention was paid to these drawings, and they do not appear to have been considered ‘art’. While there were intermittent (and ‘unscientific’) records of these drawings, it was only in the 1940s that Theo Schoon first recorded and studied these paintings. Schoon, however, could not keep reproduction and intepretation apart, and it was only in the 1960s, with the work of Anthony Fomison, that there were accurate drawings made (McCulloch). While Schoon was probably one of the first persons to truly appreciate the artistic value of these drawings *, he was also guilty of vandalism, tracing over the existing drawings to make them clearer (Thompson, 1989).

Earlier intepreted as having ritualistic or religious origins, these paintings are currently interpreted as being the work of ‘hunter-gatherers’ of the pre-european moa hunter period. The objects drawn are primarilly animals, birds and humans, and range from scrawls to well executed figures (McCulloch).

While there have been few references to these drawings in ‘serious’ New Zealand art, Schoon’s contemporary, A.R.D. Fairburn used almost literal transcriptions onto furnishing fabric (Thompson, 1989) refering to this period as “my year long struggle on behalf of culture” (Randerson, 1995). Also in the 1950s Louise Tilsley used designs derived from the cave drawings for placemats (Randerson, 1995). The Taniwha image from the Opihi river has been used on a (now withdrawn) New Zealand stamp, though it appears to be interpreted in the more clear cut style image of latter Maori carving. While other historical Maori motifs are commonly in use by contemporary artists (and the tourist industry), I am yet to come across the use of any of these cave drawing motifs being recycled or intepreted in contemporary art. Many of these sites are left woefully unprotected, even though the tribes try their best with the limited resources they have. While tribes like the Ngai Tahu have trusts to take care of these treasures, they need more support, as blogger Marty Mars has pointed out.

And finally to the question I have been dying to ask. Is there, really, any difference between this rock 'art' and the much maligned graffiti today? While a lot of the graffiti we see seems to come from an adolescent desire to leave a mark, there is also a large body of work that employs artistic principles, if on a different canvas, with different tools. Banksy, arguably one of the most well known contemporary graffiti artists, has done brilliant and incisive work, using the streets of Bristol for his canvas. My favourite piece (pictured here) was secretly installed at the British Museum, and was undetected for 3 days! A large part of graffiti art has to do with Hip-hop culture, and many ‘taggers’ have now moved beyond the hastily scrawled four letter poem of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘A Poem on the Underground Wall’, often speaking of “protest and marginalised identities (Zemke-White, 2007).” If art is for the purpose of our coming to terms with the world (Keith, 2007), the cave drawings and the graffiti of today seems to me art of the purest vision-art for its own sake, without thought for commercial potential.

Photographer Adrienne Rewi has documented Maori/Pacific inspired graffiti art on her blog, but this seems yet to widely catch on, and probably as she points out, for deeper cultural reasons. As Auckland street artist 2Tone laments, people do not “[attempt] to create something that is true to themselves and our local scene”(2Tone, 2007). Maybe an uniquely Aotearoa New Zealand style will emerge, just as an unique Maori art did. Maybe the ancient rock artists are spiritually connected to the taggers today. Too tenuous a link? Probably. But hey. Who knows?

NOTES:

*”Schoon [was] able to see [these drawings] as art because European modernists opened their eyes to what was then called by the Europeans the ‘Primitive’. Miro, Klee, Picasso and most other European artists who shaped 20th century art were able to make the art they made because in part their imagination had been freed by looking at the tribal art of Africa” (Keith, 2007).

Bibliography
1. 2Tone. (2007). InForm: New Zealand Graffiti Artists Discuss Their Work. (E. O'Donnell, Interviewer)
2. Dunn, M. (1972). Mori Rock Art. A.H.&A.W.Reed.
3. Keith, H. (2007). The Big Picture: A history of New Zealand art from 1642. Godwit.
4. McCulloch, B. (n.d.). Maori Rock Drawings: A matter of Intepretation. Maori Rock Drawings-The Theo Schoon Intepretations . Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch City Council.
5. Randerson, J. (1995). When Rock Art met the Placemat. The Modern World Conference (p. 2). Wellington: UNITEC School of Design.
6. Thompson, P. (1989). Maori Rock Art-An Ink That Will Stand Forever. GP Books.
7. Zemke-White, D. K. (2007). Inform: New Aealand Graffiti Artists Discuss their Work. Reed.
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taniwha
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa
10. http://www.teara.govt.nz/TheBush/UnderstandingTheNaturalWorld/Taniwha/en for the Taniwha picture
11. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pickard/14668113/ for the Banksy picture

12. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opihi_rock_drawing2.jpeg for the Opihi rock drawing

13. http://www.ngaitahu.co.nz/RockArt/overview.htm

14. http://mars2earth.blogspot.com/2009/03/ngai-tahu-rock-art-needs-protection-now.html

15. http://maorilifestyles.blogspot.com/2009/07/cultural-graffiti.html