Sidestep: The Kiangaroa Carvings
Not far off the road from Taupo is a little known rock shelter. It is not marked on any sign, but if you see cars parked up in the middle of nowhere, you may have found it.
These are generally regarded as Maori, but the carvings are on rock, of canoes and many of them, and unusually large (one is 8’ long). That’s a bit like having a Hawaiian built a marae out of wood rather than volcanic rock – a departure from accepted normal style and culture. Does that mean these carving are not Maori? They could be from some very archaic Maori - but so far inland, and with canoes (when no other exist like this elsewhere)? It is more likely these carvers were documenting the changes they saw with canoes coming and some leaving but that too is conjecture. But they have spirals on the sides of the canoes as well (click on middle photo). No Polynesian canoes had spirals on the sides. So was it just creative license, and if it was – why?
It is interesting that when Europeans discovered this rock shelter, none of the local Maori knew of it. This is of far more importance that what is written about the origins today because the Ngati-Manawa had held the land for 12 generations before the discovery in 1926, and before them the land was held by the Marangaranga. These people (the Marangaranga) were defeated in battle and fled towards Waiti. (Interestingly, Te Waiti is the site of the only known dendrogyph in Aotearoa). The former (Ngati Manawa) knew nothing of the carvings, or even of the rock shelter which contains them, yet was only 7 miles from their village. This may mean that the carvings are no older than the oldest living person of the tribe at that time, but if it is a significant site that is highly unlikely. Possibly few went there because it was a site of the tangata whenua and over time it was lost. It could also be that the shelter was one of convenience rather than of importance because all sites of importance have a name, and this site had none. Naturally, we are swaying toward the second possibility as well as one they used during their travels or for refuge.
The shelter does have a stream close by, one of only two in the area which is probably why it was chosen. The floor of the shelter had ash varying in thickness from a few inches to 3 feet and this means they cooked at one end and slept at the other. Pipi shells, obsidian flakes and an old pounder were found but little in the way of artifacts suggesting it was a way station for travelers. It is likely the carvings were made from the obsidian flakes and pounder.
There is now a face carved in the rock, often shown in pictures and regarded as being Maori. This is in fact an addition from a later time than the natives who carved the original designs as it was never mentioned in the first discovery. Jean Clottes, a renowned French pre-historian accepted them as original, which shows how easy it is to fool even the experts. But whether some Maori or European carved it during the early 1900's we will never know. My guess is a European for it has no resemblance of Polynesian design upon it other than the Okia artefact (http://tangatawhenua16.wixsite.com/the-first-ones-blog/single-post/2016/09/08/100-Okia-artefact) which adds even more mystery to this.
Below are extracts of government sponsored report on this site which we have abbreviated for you….
THE CARVINGS.—It will be seen that the great majority of the carvings have a conventionalized Maori canoe as the motif. Certain other elements, such as chevrons, detached spirals, and unidentified markings, are subsidiary to the canoe motif. Apart from the actual design of the canoes, several interesting points will be noted. It can be said with some degree of certainty that the sixteen canoes from right to left are the work of the one carver, and probably were started and finished within a short period of time. They all stand out from the rock in raised relief, and have many features in common, one being that they are all heading the same way—to the left. Like Maori canoe-models made at the present day, the carvings are evidently not to scale. The date of the carvings in the group to the left of the shelter is probably subsequent to that of the main group, and this later work is not in relief, the outlines being incised lines up to one inch in depth. Here again the work is evidently that of one individual, and it looks as if opposition had caused the artist to head his canoes to the right, directing them toward the other fleet; though it may equally well be that he drew his canoes in the way that came easiest to him, since it is a well known fact that unless a person has been trained to become ambidextrous it is easier, or more convenient, to sketch in one direction than in the other. If any fact of historical value is likely to be derived from the study of these carvings, I am of the opinion that it will come from the main group on the right of the shelter. There is a suggestive fleet-like formation of the canoes, as if a war-like expedition were being depicted, with scouts in front and the larger canoes in the rear.
STRUCTURAL DETAILS.—The majority of the canoes have a curiously exaggerated bow ornamentation. Either the sculptor was not well acquainted with the types of canoe ornamentation as we know them, or he was depicting a type of which we have no record. Before condemning his artistic ability, it would seem that we must extend our comparative researches into canoe types of other Polynesian islands. It may first be permissible, however, to suggest that the ordinary waka taua (war canoe) of the Maori is depicted. For the purpose of comparison I have prepared silhouettes of three accepted types of Maori canoe-prows—(1) the Northern or Nga Puhi type; (2) the general type of waka taua; (3) the fishing-canoe type. It will be seen that the prow carvings of the rock-shelter canoes more closely approach the silhouette of the waka taua type. The fishing-canoe prow is less likely to be perpetuated, and, to my mind, cannot be paralleled to the designs of the rock carvings. Likewise, it is improbable that the northern or Nga Puhi type of canoe prow is intended to be represented, as the silhouette of this type shews great dissimilarity with the Kaingaroa type.
ORNAMENTATION.—Several of the canoes are decorated by spirals and double spirals, lightly graven on the hull, bow and stern piece. In one or two cases it is possible to recognize the representation of a rauawa (top strake) also decorated with spirals. The chevron patterns to be seen in several places on the cave wall are possibly the conventionalized representation of water. There are other patterns, but these are now so weathered as not to be identifiable with any degree of certainty. One of these may have been a human figure, or an image, but it is very indistinct. As the spiral and other known ornamental patterns are indicated, the carvings were apparently done by one acquainted with ornament such as has been known to exist for at least a century or so; and this, as Dr. Buck, who made an inspection on behalf of the State Forest Service, notes, indicates either that the carvings are comparatively modern, or that the fine ornamentation of the larger Maori canoes is an art that had developed much longer since than has hitherto been supposed.
AGE AND HISTORY.—It is impossible, with present knowledge, to say by what tribe the carvings were executed. The dispossessed Marangaranga tribe was defeated in battles only a few miles distant. Everything seems to indicate that the shelter was at most a place of convenience; not of importance. All this country is well known to Elsdon Best, and he says that it is composed of poor soil, and that there was no permanent occupation of it in former times. The permanent fortified villages were situated in the Rangitaiki valley, or in or near forest areas. These poor lands of light pumice with a small amount of humus were covered only with a growth of short bracken fern, flourishing better in the gullies. At Motumako, not far from the shelter, there was a patch of bush where the Maori occasionally lived; they were living there in 1869. They visited the pumice lands in question for the purpose of taking birds and the Maori rat, attending to their traps perhaps twice a day; sometimes but once. Dr. Buck also notes that there is in places a deposit of from 6in to 3ft of ash and burnt material on the floor but nothing in the way of tools or implements by which the occupants might be identified. Further search may reveal more.
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Below are three more photos which showed an old canoe. Many many miles from any water with no stream big enough for it to float upon. The original reports say nothing of an old canoe and we suspect that it was taken there for the purpose of photographic display only.
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Post Script:
Since first writing this article on 8th January I had some good information from J.K Paora. He says...
"They were done by marangaranga who were there before and intermarried into my tribe, ngati manawa, who now inhabit the area. Thats why ngati manawa had no knowledge of the carvings... At the time that these were done Ngati Manawa were most likely still migrating from the waikato area to their present day rohe. My belief is the carvings actually depict the colonisation of the taupo area by the ancestor tuwharetoa, who conquered the marangaranga and forced them to build his fleet of waka on the kaingaroa plains then rowed them down the waiotapu river to invade what is now the rohe of ngati tuwharetoa."
