Conservator restores New Zealand treasure
A conservator specialising in Māori and Pacific objects has turned an expert hand to restoring one of New Zealand’s oldest surviving Māori waka (canoe).
Karel Kaio - a woman who’s passionate about museums and working on priceless pieces of culture - painstakingly pieced together the massive wooden waka that’s displayed at the Whangarei Museum and Kiwi House.
The 9.6-metre waka made of kauri - a native tree that grew to gigantic sizes in the Northland forests - is believed to be more than 150-years-old.
It is now the centrepiece of an exhibition on Māori technology - Mai I Tua Whakarere - launched for Matariki / Māori new year.
National conservation
Kaio, who was previously Conservator Ethnographic Objects and Contemporary Sculpture at Te Papa - New Zealand’s national museum, in Wellington, has worked on historic projects throughout the country.
Affiliated with local Tainui and Ngapuhi iwi / tribes, Kaio moved back to Northland last year to be with family, and soon became involved in local museum work including the waka restoration project.
The waka had been gifted to the museum in 1964, and restoring it involved re-attaching the prow after an earlier failed repair job.
Kaio spent hours removing old adhesive, inserting wooden dowels into the break area, realigning the prow and adhering it into place using conservation materials.
Further work required to remove white paint specks that cover the surface will be carried out in the near future, she said.
Traditional war canoes
The waka is known to have been in the possession of several groups during its historic lifetime.
It was originally one of two canoes shaped from kauri logs in the traditional way by Māori from the Puhipuhi area.
The Puhipuhi iwi used it on the Wairua river, near Whangarei, for raiding trips against other Māori. During one such raid, sometime before 1860, the waka was captured by the Poroti iwi who lived further down river.
The waka remained at Poroti for years before falling into the hands of Pierre Guignier, owner of a gum trading store at Mangere Crossing on the Wairua river. Guignier took possession of the waka as payment for goods bought by kauri gum diggers working at Poroti.
During the early 1900s, the canoe was carried away - along with Guignier’s house and store - in a flood but was eventually recovered, still in good condition.
For several years after, the waka was used on the river by family and friends. Thelma Buisman, who later inherited the canoe, gifted it to the Whangarei Museum in 1964.
Passion for art
It was Karel Kaio’s passion for art that first led her into an arts degree, before branching out into conservation of ethnic objects.
As part of a work placement during her studies, Kaio was taken on by a couple of Auckland conservators and into the conservation laboratories at the Auckland Museum, the Auckland Art Gallery and the Auckland University of Technology.
"I was pretty much hooked after these experiences," she said.
"So, after successfully applying to do the Masters course in the Conservation of Cultural Materials at the University of Melbourne, I moved to Melbourne to complete the two-year course majoring in ethnographic objects with the desire to return to New Zealand and work on Māori taonga [treasures]."
Ethnographic expert
Since graduating in 2005, Kaio has worked at Te Papa as Conservator Ethnographic Objects and Contemporary Sculpture, and at New Zealand Archives as preservation officer. She has also completed several private conservation treatments for various government departments.
Kaio’s experiences as a conservator have involved mainly ethnographic (namely Māori and Pacific) objects, however her training has provided sufficient knowledge and experience to work on a variety of objects, she said.
Strange objects
The strangest object Kaio has worked on was a wax model of a pig embryo, created in the early 1960's, which she had to surface-clean as part of the requirements for the conservation course.
"I enjoy being a conservator as it allows me the privilege of handling so many amazing historical objects and artworks, and I also get access into areas of collection sites that are not accessible to most people," she said.
"I also get to interact with other people that share my interest in contributing to the welfare of historic materials. Basically I learn more and more about the history of objects and relevant cultural information with every conservation job that I undertake."
As well as continuing conservation work for museums, Kaio is working as an art technician tutoring at Northland Polytech.
Mai i Tua Whakarere / From the Ancient Past is on at Whangarei Museum until 4 October, 2009. Exhibits highlight past technologies used by Maori for fishing, fire-making, stone working and flax fibre processing.
More information:
Matariki Māori New Year
Northland region
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