Māori fishhooks in European museums: Tuhinga 21

Tuhinga 21: 13 - 41

ABSTRACT: Māori and other Polynesian fishhooks held in museums throughout Europe were examined from collections in Russia, France, Austria, Ireland, Scotland and England. Among the hundreds of Māori hooks available, less than two dozen can reliably be attributed to the voyages of James Cook and other early European explorers, while many others are possibly of Cook origin but cannot be verified. Most museum collections include hooks made in the period between the 1880s and 1920s, when demand from ‘curio’ collectors led to many replicas or fakes being produced for trade purposes. These Māori fishhooks are vital to our understanding of how traditional Māori hooks were manufactured and functioned.

KEYWORDS: Māori fishhooks, composite hooks, trolling lures, one-piece hooks, Cook’s voyages, Reinhold and Georg Forster, Joseph Banks, European museums, fakes.