Herepo Rongo. From the series: The Moko Suite

This photograph is part of the ‘Moko suite’ that captures the whakapapa and art of moko as well as the lives of kuia in the early 1970s. The photographs were taken for the book Moko: Maori tattooing in the 20th Century, by Michael King, published in 1972 by Alister Taylor, Wellington. The book was later republished by David Bateman in 1992.

Soon after the photography was completed, each kuia received a gift of a hand-made photographic print from Marti Friedlander. And when Marti Friedlander donated a set of the moko photographic prints to Te Papa in 2009 she also allowed Te Papa to show them online so the public of New Zealand could have access to them. However, Te Papa is unable to authorise any other reproduction of the photographs, nor make copy prints or digital images available.

Te Papa welcomes contact from the whānau of these kuia.