Maori Markings: Ta Moko at National Gallery of Australia
MĀORI MARKINGS
TĀ MOKO
March 23, 2019 — August 25, 2019
Ta moko is the unique Māori art of marking the skin with connecting patterns that tell of prestige, authority and identity. To receive and wear moko is a great cultural privilege. Maori Markings: Ta Moko will explore this tradition, from its origin in the legend of Mataora and Niwareka and the earliest European records of the practice to its contemporary resurgence from the 1990s. Important early Maori sculpture, nineteenth-century prints, painting and photography and contemporary photography will trace the story of this unique cultural art form.
The portraits in the exhibition span the past two hundred and fifty years and include images of men and women influential in Māori history. Visitors will have the chance to discover some of the first illustrations of Māori people, made during Captain Cook's voyages. Pictures of chiefs who travelled the world in the early nineteenth century, such as Hongi Hika, will also be among the treasures on display, as will portraits of signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi and of those who openly defied the colonial government during New Zealand's land wars of the mid nineteenth century.
