Searching for Karemanua

22 October 2015 - 14 February 2016

Free entry

In 1973 anthropologist and future Maaori leader Dr Hirini Moko Mead collected art and artefacts from the south eastern Solomon Islands on behalf of Waikato Museum. These included eating and sacrifice bowls, carved house posts, fishing floats, and figurines. Many feature sharks, bonito, garfish, and frigate birds—tutelary animals associated with ancestors.

A majority exemplified what Mead termed the ‘New Art’, carvings made for sale to visitors, rather than customary reasons.

We present a selection from the Mead Collection and tell the story of how these items arrived here.

Image: Wapanfaru, Tableau: Coconut Cream Extractor, Collection of Waikato Museum.