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Art History 220 and 222
Art History 220 and 222
4/12/17
Period 7
Paintings like Tamati Waka Nene, record likenesses and bring ancestral presence into the
world of the living. This portrait is not merely a representation of Tamati Waka Nene, it can be
an embodiment of him. The subject of this portrait, Tamati Waka Nene, was a Rangatira or chief
of the Ngti Hao people in Hokianga, of the Ngpuhi iwi or tribe, and an important war leader.
He was revered throughout his life as a man with great mana or personal efficacy. In this portrait,
Nene wears a kahu kiwi, a fine cloak covered in kiwi feathers, and an earring of greenstone or
pounamu. Both of these are prestigious taonga or treasures. He is holding a hand weapon known
as a tewhatewha, which has feathers adorning its blade and a finely carved hand grip with an
abalone or paua eye. All of these mark him as man of mana or personal efficacy and status. But
the most striking feature for an international audience is his intricate facial tattoo, called moko. It
is likely that Lindauer based this portrait on a photograph taken by John Crombie, who had been
commissioned to produce 12 photographic portraits of Mori chiefs for The London Illustrated
News.
The Malangan figure was made for malangan, a cycle of rituals of the people of the north coast
of New Ireland, an island in Papua New Guinea. Malangan express many complex religious and
philosophical ideas. They are principally concerned with honoring and dismissing the dead, but they also
act as affirmation of the identity of clan groups, and negotiate the transmission of rights to land. They are
symbolic of many important subjects, including identity, kinship, gender, death, and the spirit world. They
often include representations of fish and birds of identifiable species, alluding both to specific myths and
the animal's natural characteristics. It was one a group of carvings made to be displayed at a
particular malangan ritual. It is made of wood, vegetable fiber, pigment and shell.