Overview
This collection consists of samples of ferns, herbs, shrubs and trees collected by ethnographer Elsdon Best during an excursion across the Huiarau Range (Te Urewera - North Island) in 1896. Each specimen has a label, handwritten by Best, indicating the Māori name of the plant. In some specimens, the label also indicate use, preparation methods and cultivation. Scientific names were added, at a later date, by botanist Thomas Kirk. Notes and English translations by Stephenson Percy Smith (SPS), ethnographer and founder of the Polynesian Society, also appear in some labels.
This excursion was led by Tūtakangahau, a Tūhoe chief and the last tohunga (expert) to be schooled in the tribe’s traditional whare maire (school of learning). Tūtakangahau was also an expert in Maramataka (the lunar calendar). The mātauranga (knowledge) indicated on each label, and that thoroughly reported in Best’s monograph Waikaremoana, the sea of rippling waters, with a tramp through Tuhoe land, where his encounter with these plants is described, most likely originated from Tūtakangahau.
These samples are far from being the ideal herbarium specimen but they are a valuable, tangible and enduring record of mātauranga Māori and Tūhoe’s relationship with the natural world at a time European colonisation had reached most of New Zealand.
To see images of these specimens scroll down to "Related Objects".
References
Best, E. 1897. Waikaremoana, the sea of rippling waters, with a tramp through Tuhoe land. John Mackay Government Pinter. Wellington, New Zealand. Accessible from: https://www.berose.fr/IMG/pdf/waikaremoanaseao00bestuoft.pdf
Meredith, P. 'Maramataka – the lunar calendar - Lunar months', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/5383/maramataka-expert-tutakangahau (accessed 22 October 2021)
Sissons, J. 'Best, Elsdon', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1993. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2b20/best-elsdon (accessed 22 October 2021)
Fuller, RJM. 2013. Ethnobotany: major developments of a discipline abroad, reflected in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 51: 116–138. DOI: 10.1080/0028825X.2013.778298