A chief of New Zealand

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

Despite the inscriptions identifying them as New Zealand Māori, these three drawings are not portraits of specific individuals. Instead, they are costume designs for Omai, or, a trip round the world, a pantomime first performed in London in December 1785.

Functional rather than purely aesthetic objects, the drawings were annotated with notes (‘Tall’ or ‘Middle Size’) to assist with casting actors in the three roles. Likewise, the enlarged version of the heru (ornamental comb), seen to the right of the ‘chief warrior’, may have been intended for fabricating props.

Omai (or Mai) was an inhabitant of Ra‘iātea in what is now French Polynesia. Joining HMS Adventure during James Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific from 1772 to 1775, he arrived in Britain in 1774. There he enjoyed immediate celebrity, becoming the darling of elite society for his exotic appearance and natural grace.

In 1776 Mai returned to the Pacific, settling on the island of Huahine, where he died only a few years later.

In 1784 the popular memory of Mai and public interest in the Pacific were reinforced by the publication of the official account of Cook’s third voyage, of 1776–80. Omai capitalised on this, and Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg used a wholly fictionalised Mai as the pretext for scenes depicting exotic locations associated with Cook. While New Zealand did not feature in the pantomime, the three Māori figures appeared in the procession of Pacific, North American and Asian peoples which occurred near the end of the performance, celebrating Mai’s coronation as ‘king’ of Otaheite and emphasising Cook’s achievements as a navigator.

Described by a critic as the ‘stage edition of Captain Cook’s voyage’, Omai was hailed for its realism. However, some artistic licence is evident in the costume designs and props, notably the anomalous plantain leaf held by the ‘Chief of New Zealand’. While designing the scenes, de Loutherbourg collaborated with John Webber, the artist on Cook’s third voyage, whose own drawings were supplemented with published images and Pacific artefacts then available in London. It is possible that Te Papa’s drawings are by Webber himself rather than de Loutherbourg. Whatever their authorship, their historical significance in relation to the European vision of the ‘new world’ of the South Pacific is considerable.

Mathew Norman

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In 1785, the pantomime Omai, or, A Trip Round the World was staged at Covent Garden Theatre in London in honour of Omai. The final scene was a procession of representatives from the Pacific in costumes such as those shown in these designs.

They are based on prints and drawings from James Cook’s second and third Pacific voyages. While costume designer Philip James de Loutherbourg may have intended authenticity, he has imagined Māori dress, adornment, and body art for an English audience curious for spectacle.