Overview
Kurī, or Pacific dog, were a unique breed, brought to Aotearoa New Zealand by ancestors of Māori. These animals were prized – not necessarily as friends, but as valuable provisions. The meat was a delicacy, the pelts made into cloaks that could only be worn by rangatira (leaders), the teeth fashioned into ornaments, and the bones made into matau (fishhooks).
They even appear in early Māori art, in charcoal-rendered drawings found on rock overhangs in the South Island. Early Europeans settlers recognised them as a distinct breed.
Europeans also brought their own breeds of dog and this spelled the end of the kurī. Interbreeding meant that kurī eventually no longer existed as a separate breed. Many were also shot by early run holders to protect livestock. This kurī was shot along with her pup by a farmer in 1867, and is one of only a few taxidermised kurī in existence, therefore a valuable record. Its poor condition is due to the fact that some time had elapsed between the animal being killed and it being mounted. Her pup was sent to the British Museum.
From the journal Transactions of the New Zealand Institute; vol 9; 1876:
"A bitch and full- grown pup were known for several years in the densely wooded country between Waikava [Waikawa] and the Mataura plains, and did great damage among the flocks of sheep, but exhibited such cunning and daring that it was not till after hunting them for two years that they were shot by Mr Anderson, who presented them to the Colonial Museum. Of the smaller specimen both skin and skeleton were taken to the British Museum by Sir Grey, and the skin of the mother was preserved here, and has been recognized by many old Maoris as a genuine Kuri or ancient maori dog"
"The skull, which is the only part of the skeleton preserved, proves it to have been a very old individual, the canines being worn down to their stumps, and the processes and ridges of the cranium strongly developed"
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He momo motuhake te kurī, i mauria tahitia mai nei ki Aotearoa e ngā tūpuna o te iwi Māori. He taonga nui ēnei kararehe – kāpā ia hei hoa, engari hei kai mā te tangata. He tino kai te kiko kurī, arā, ngā mīti, ā, ko ngā kiri i tuia hei kākahu mō ngā tino uri rangatira. Ko ngā niho hei taonga whakarākei, ko ngā kōiwi hei mahi matau mō tef hī ika.
Ka kitea ngā āhua o ēnei kurī i ngā mahi toi Māori tuatahi, i roto i ngā whakaahua i tuhia ki te waro i ngā tauwharenga toka i Te Waipounamu. I kīia ēnei kurī he momo motuhake e ngā Pākehā tuatahi ki Aotearoa.
I mauria mai e te Pākehā āna nei momo kurī huhua, hei mutunga atu tēnei mō te kurī. Nā ngā moemoetanga ki ngā kurī hōu kāore i ora mai te kurī hei momo motuhake. He tini i pūhia e ngā kaiwhāngai hipi tuatahi kei ngaua ngā hipi me nga kau. I pūhia tēnei kurī rāua tahi ko tana punua e tētahi kaipāmu i te tau kotahi mano e waru rau ono tekau mā whitu. Ko tēnei whakapakoko tētahi o ngā mea ruarua noa i te ao nei, nā reira hei taonga tēnei mā ngā whakatupuranga. Heoi anō, kāore i tino pai rawa te mahi whakapakoko, he roa rawa te wā mai i te patunga ki te opurutanga, kāore e tino pai te noho o tēnei whakapakoko kurī. I tonoa tāna punua ki te whare pupuru taonga matua o Ingarangi.