Image: Tamatekapua

Description: Tama-te-kapua, ancestor of Te Arawa, depicted in a carving at Tamatekapua meeting house in Ohinemutu, Rotorua, circa 1880. Tama-te-kapua is holding a pair of stilts, which he used to steal breadfruit from a tree belonging to Uenuku, in the mythical homeland, Hawaiki. (E.G. Schwimmer in Te Ao Hou, No. 28 (September 1959) p48, says: The modern carver, just like his forebears, aims to tell a tribal story in striking pictures. Some of these pictures are already traditional, like Tama-te-kapua, who is always shown on stilts. The carver who first thought of this picture wanted to show the old chief in one of his most characteristic activities: he was known as a very ingenious thief and it was said that he would never leave footprints behind; so he was represented on one of his thieving expeditions walking on stilts to avoid recognition. To-day, every carver who wishes to know Tama-te-kapua shows the stilts: they have become entirely traditional and in fact the stilts are the feature by which Tama-te-kapua may be recognised in any Arawa meeting house.)
Title: Tamatekapua
Credit: Alexander Turnbull Library URL Reference No. PA7-05-36.
Author: Burton Brothers, Dunedin
Permission: Out of Copyright worldwide
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No