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Overview
Text originally created for Tūrangawaewae: Art and New Zealand exhibition at Te Papa, March 2018.
An ancestral treasure represents enduring mana [authority].
This pūtātara is associated with Tūhoe iwi [tribe] leader Te Whenuanui. It sounded during the 1860s New Zealand Wars, when Te Whenuanui led his people against government troops. At that time, it had already been in the family for six generations.
Taonga [treasures] such as Te Umukohukohu connect ancestors to their descendants, and are wrapped in the stories of those gone before. Like the portrait of the woman on the opposite wall, Te Umukohukohu challenges European depictions of Māori – asserting the mana [sovereignty] of those represented.
He mana nui tuku iho tō te taonga.
He hononga tō tēnei pūtātara ki a Te Whenuanui, he rangatira nō Tūhoe. I whakatangihia i ngā tau 1860 i ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa, nō Te Whenuanui e ārahi ana i tana iwi ki te pakanga atu ki ngā ope tauā a te kāwanatanga. I taua wā rā, kua noho kē te taonga i waenganui i te whānau mō ngā reanga e ono.
E hono ana ngā taonga, pēnei i Te Umukohukohu, i ngā tīpuna ki ā rātou uri, ā, he tini ngā kōrero o roto. Pēnei i te kōwaiwai kiritangata i te pakitara kei tua, e wero ana a Te Umukohukohu i ngā whakaahuatanga a te Pākehā o te Māori – he whakaū i te mana o te hunga e whakakanohitia ana.
The putatara, also known as the pumoana, is a conch or triton shell trumpet that was used for signalling. They were typically made from either the triton (Triton australis) shell, a species that is not native to New Zealand and only occassionally washed up along New Zealand's northern most beaches, or more commonly from New Zealand's smaller native conch shell's (Charonia lampas rubicunda). The ends of the shells are neatly cut-off leaving a small aperture for trumpeting, to which is affixed a wooden, often carved, mouth-piece. Putatara were the possessions of chiefs and often preserved as family heirlooms.
This putatara is named Te Umu-kohukohu and formerly belonged to the Tuhoe chief Te Whenuanui 1 (about 1815-1907). Te Whenuanui presented Te Umu-kohukohu to a former New Zealand Governor General in 1906, at which time it was thought to have been in his family for six generations. Te Umu-kohukohu was last used about 1867, a time when Te Whenuanui was actively engaged in the New Zealand land wars.