Tauira (He Takarangi carving pattern)

Nga Tauira a Anaha Te Rahui

Anaha Te Rahui's patterns

In 1909 Anaha Te Rahui of Rotorua, then an old man, carved some patterns for Augustus Hamilton, who was director of the Dominion Museum in Wellington. He carved sixteen pieces for which he was paid a few pounds a figure calculated at the rate of ten shillings a square foot of carving. This was at a time when Anaha was so poor that he was begging to be paid for his work, so he could buy essential items such as flour and tea. Each piece featured a named form in figure carving or a motif in surface decoration. Anaha carved each pattern in the form of a framed picture and this practice annoyed Hamilton a great deal because he though viewers would think that the decorations in the frame were part of the named pattern. So at the outset it should be made clear that the frame is not part of the named figure type or of the decorative pattern.

One of Anaha's figures types was rejected by Hamilton because he did not like it. In a letter to a Mr Birks of the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, 9 October 1909, Hamilton worte "It may be intednded to represent a carving god but I do not desire the gentleman's acquaintance at present". So the torea (oyster catcher or stilt) form which is part of the art traditions of Te Arawa was not accepted and the pattern carved by Anaha cannot be found. Illustrated here are fifteen of Anaha's tauira (patterns), together with the name which he gave to each one. They are arranged in two groups: in the first are ten decorative motifs and in the second, five figure forms.