No'oanga (seat)

item details

NameNo'oanga (seat)

ProductionUnknown; Southern Cook Islands

Classificationseating furniture, seats

Materialswood

Techniqueswoodcarving

Dimensions500mm, 170mm

Registration NumberOL000373/1

Credit lineOldman Collection. Gift of the New Zealand Government, 1992

Overview

This no'oanga (seat) has four legs and is carved from a single piece of wood. The broad seat is flat from front to back, convex from side to side, and slightly wider at the sides than the centre. The two pairs of legs curve slightly outwards towards the sides and terminate in wider feet, which are rounded on the outside and pointed on the inside. The legs sit unevenly.

Cook Islands' craft
According to research by Te Rangi Hiroa (Peter Buck) in the 1940s, no'oanga were made throughout the Cook Islands. He attributed small no'oanga with short curved legs mainly to the island of Atiu. Other seats much longer and wider in size were made on Aitutaki and were called atamira. On Rarotonga, according to Hiroa, a single seat on a pedestal base was made. In the nineteenth century, no'oanga were symbols of chiefly social status. By the late twentieth century, no'oanga were important symbols of culture but were made mainly for the tourist market.