Pou tokomanawa (carved centre post)

The female pou tokomanawa (carved centre-post) pictured here is one of two male and female pou tokomanawa from the Wairoa region, the area of the Ngāti Kahungunu people. Te Papa has little iwi (tribe) or hapū (sub-tribe) information about them.

Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) (Māori knowledge systems)
Female and male pou tokomanawa are the central posts that support the tāhuhu (backbone or spine) of important meeting houses. Within a Māori worldview, male and female principles are essential for procreation and are interdependent and complementary to each other. These principles are reiterated in important cosmological and whakapapa (genealogical) narratives. While the pou tokomanawa pictured here may be representations of ancestors or used with mnemonic devices to reiterate tribal knowledge, aspects of the Ranginui (Sky Father) and Papatūānuku (Earth Mother) cosmological narrative are evident.

The Māori creation story
According to customary beliefs, Ranganui and Papatūānuku are the first parents from which all Māori descend. The account speaks of the seeking of uha (female principle) for creating ira tangata (human life). Led by Tānemahuta, the sons, who were ātua (spiritual entities), of Ranganui and Papatūānuku began the search. Tānemahuta's experimental acts of procreation with female personifications in the natural world created trees, birds and insects, but not the appropriate female element for securing human kind. The sons resolved to mould a female form from the red earth at Kurawaka, the pubic area of Papatūānuku. (Kurawaka is both a metaphorical and a physical location. Kurawaka can refer to the rising sun and the colour it creates in the east. It can be an actual place for securing red clay in different tribal regions where the location would be carefully guarded.) While each brother deliberated about or contributed to the creation process, Tānemahuta breathed life into the inanimate form to create ira tangata (the first human) - a woman called Hineahuone. The uha thus came from Papatūānuku.

Tānemahuta then joined with Hineahuone, resulting in the birth of Hinetītama (the dawn). Tānemahuta also had relations with his daughter that resulted in offspring. When Hineahuone realised this, she withdrew to the underworld and became Hinenuitepō, guardian and protector of the spiritual welfare of the dead.

Life, procreation, whakapapa
The female pou tokomanawa represents the power to give birth and sustain life. She, like all women, symbolises the beginning of life, the welfare of human kind during life, and the welfare of the soul after death. The male pou tokomanawa reiterates the power of procreation. This is emphasised in the example shown by the figure's firm grip on his penis and by the hei tiki (pendant) suspended around his neck, which is indicative of whakapapa (geneaology) and ongoing ancestral connection. Together, both pou tokomanawa support the diverse roles of Māori in customary culture and contemporary society.

Acquisition
This female pou tokomanawa formed part of a larger group of taonga Māori (Māori treasures or artefacts), including a tekoteko (carved figure on a house), a kōruru (carved owl-like face), and a related male pou tokomanawa collected by Senior Sergeant H C D Wade and donated to the Dominion Museum by his wife in 1950. The male pou tokomanawa was acquired from Henry Hill (1849-1933), a prolific collector, whose collection, from which this taonga comes, was purchased by Augustus Hamilton, Director of the Colonial Museum, in 1905. Hamilton acted on behalf of the government to secure the collection for £500.