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Overview
This carved tekoteko (gable figure) once occupied the primary position on the apex of a carved house at Murupara in the Bay of Plenty region. Some of its more unusual features may indicate early European influences. It is sculptured fully in the round and its limbs are fully articulated and foreshortened. The knees point slightly inwards and the five-fingered hands are splayed neatly across the lower thighs in a very natural position. It is as if the figure is actually crouching before the viewer, or above the viewer, as it would have been in its original location perched on the front of the house. The spread legs, rounded buttocks, and pointed penis above the entrance to a house would have presented quite a lurid display.
Straddling two worlds
The tekoteko is extraordinary in its apparent efforts to break free from the surrounding tree that it was hewn from. The figure has broken free from its static and rigid carved-post form and achieved a crude representation of naturalism based on the accurate depiction of the human body as it might appear. The flat kneecaps and angular shin bones also attest to European canons of representation. But the imposition of biblical text with the words TE AROAKAPA incised into the subject's chest along with the bowler-like hat carries the European message even further. The full facial moko (tattoo) indicates that this figure probably straddled two worlds, one Pākehā and one Māori.