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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Georg Forster, William Hodge, Captain Cook, Maori

College

Fine Arts and Communications

Department

Art

Abstract

I’ll never forget the moment sitting in the large workshop in the basement of Rangi Kipa’s house in Ohope, New Zealand, when he talked about his art and especially the Paraka carvings, a shape based off the prow figure found on traditional Maori Waka (a canoe like watercraft). Kipa, a leading contemporary sculptor, carver, and tattoo artist from New Zealand and Maori, explained that the Paraka has come to represent Kipa’s navigation of his art, which looks back into the customary art techniques, but also forward into the modern art world. It prompts a re-examination of the past identity of the Maori people, but also a re-interpretation of what Maori means. Should the Maori people be defined by the snapshot images of the people taken at the moment of contact with European explorers? Kipa maintains that the Maori’s identity shouldn’t be cemented in the past by this moment, but rather its identity should respect and retain the culture of the past, and then sail forward with the same determination and courage their ancestors displayed when they set off into the deep ocean to settle New Zealand.

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