Tangaroa

This essay originally appeared in New Zealand Art at Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2018).

Before the introduction of Christianity, Cook Islands people worshipped a pantheon of gods and deities. On some islands, Tangaroa was considered the principal god of the sea and of creation. Images of him took many forms and were made from stone, wood, shell, pandanus leaf, tapa (bark cloth) and human hair. On the islands of Rarotonga and Aitutaki, he took human form in wooden figures carved by ta‘unga (specialists).1

These figures were distinctive for their heavy-set features — especially the large head, one third the size of the body. Tangaroa was customarily depicted in a squatting stance with flexed legs and hands resting on his rounded stomach, while his procreative powers were denoted by a large phallus. The sculptures were probably carried on fishing trips, wedged into the prows of canoes to ensure a successful catch.

By the early nineteenth century, the manufacture of such figures had declined, largely because of the influence of Christian missionaries. Tangaroa figures were actively targeted: some had their phalluses removed whilst others were surrendered and burned as signs of conversion. A few were retained as trophies marking the ‘success’ of the mission.2

Tangaroa is one of thirty-three sculptures by Ani O’Neill in which the wooden carving is transformed into a risqué cuddly toy. O’Neill created them by combining ideas she learned from Cook Islands master carver Michael Tavioni with her own knowledge of tīvaevae (Cook Islands quilting).3 Just as embroidery is used to embellish tīvaevae designs, O’Neill details the elliptical eyes and mouths of her sculptures with intricate stitches.

Today, representations of Tangaroa can be found on coins, stamps and countless tourist souvenirs, including miniature wooden replicas of the customary figures. In response, O’Neill originally displayed her sculptures on custom-built shelves replicating commercial storefront displays. In presenting her sculptures as if they were products for customers to choose, O’Neill critiques the commercialisation and trivialisation of this once-revered deity.

Nina Tonga

1 Te Rangi Hīroa (Peter H Buck), Arts and crafts of the Cook Islands, originally published Bernice P Bishop Museum, Honolulu, 1944, this edition Kraus Reprint Co., New York, 1971, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BucArts-t1-front-d3.html (accessed 11 January 2017).

2 Steven Hooper, Pacific encounters: Art and divinity in Polynesia 1760–1860, British Museum Press, London, 2006, pp. 65–6.

3 Ani O’Neill, ‘About the Artist’, Contemporary Pacific, vol. 24, no. 2, Fall 2012, p. ix.