Te Ika a Maui
(The Fish of Maui)
36½" × 27¾"
Oil/Paper 1995
This image derives from the myth of Maui (whose full name is Maui-tikitiki-o-Taranga) fishing up the land; the North Island of New Zealand and the South Island is the waka (canoe) from which Maui caught the fish. The fish shape can be still seen in the North Island, the head in the South, the mouth being Te Whanga-nui-a-tara (Wellington harbour) and one of the eyes Lake Wairarapa. The heart is Lake Taupo, the fish hook being the Hawkes Bay and Cape Kidnappers. The fins are Taranaki and East Coast and tail is Northland. The mystery is that the North Island geography was so well articulated in the legend of Maui and recorded by early colonialists and yet Tohunga who recited the legend had yet to view a map of the Country.
Maori have a sense of the geography or a cartography skill since lost?). The artist has portrayed Maui in Arawa style with a Waka behind and the fish becoming the emerging land The motif being derived both from an Arawa carving and a 1907 illustration by Wilhelm Dittmer; a German artist that visited the country to study its mythology.