item details
NamePoupou (side wall post)
ProductionHōne Ngatoto; carver; 1881; Tolaga Bay
ClassificationPoupou, posts
Materialswood, pāua (abalone shell), paint
Techniqueswoodcarving
DimensionsOverall: 340mm (width), 2100mm (height), 30mm (depth)
Registration NumberME000954
Credit lineFischer Collection. Purchased circa 1906
Overview
This ancestral poupou (wall panel) was carved by tohunga-whakairo (master carver) Hone Ngatoto (the last surviving master carver of the East Coast Iwirakau school of carving, who died in 1928) in the 1860s. The poupou was carved for the ancestral meeting house Te Kani a Takirau in Tologa Bay on the East Cape of the North Island.
Ancestral connection
The meeting house is named after the Ngāti Porou ancestor Te Kani a Takirau (-1856), the most famous East Coast chief of his generation. The house was carved and opened sometime in the 1860s.