Overview
The longer Europeans were in the Pacific, the more the islands became home. By the early 1900s, some Pākehā (European New Zealanders) were even calling themselves ‘Maorilanders’ rather than ‘Britishers’.
In New Zealand and elsewhere, European artisans gradually began to experiment with indigenous elements. They gave European crafts an island flavour, incorporating local materials, native flora and fauna, and motifs like the tiki (stylised human form). Their reasons were not only personal but also commercial or practical. Some experimentation overlooked or devalued the indigenous meanings of the materials and forms.
The exchange went both ways, of course. Pacific peoples also took on European forms, adapting them to suit their purposes.