- IJ
Sidestep: Cock's-comb hooded carvings
Seven out of the next nine numbered post or sidesteps are connected to artifacts, comparisons or stories from Hawaii. We want to depart from the normal for a short time between NZ or dig posts. Be assured the dig progresses. \
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Most are aware of the incredible carving found in Lake Ngaroto in the Waikato - said to represent Te Uenuku. Before it's discovery however, no one knew of this pou, it wasn't even in local Maori stories - which to us seems odd for such a 'sacred' relic. However, it has been claimed by Tainui and that is where it stays, in the Te Awamutu Museum.
Nothing like it has been found before or since (nothing else except the rumoured 3 smaller pou up on Mt Pirongia that have never been photographed - if they were real they'd have rotted away by now). So why was it designed this way? What did it really represent, and what design or origin was it modeled from?
Below are two photos from Hawaii, both thoroughly Polynesian in nature although different from the usual Maori carving style. The common character of a cock's-comb hood is obvious; just what it represents is not obvious.
Fig. 1 is an image 2 feet high, in the Bishop Museum; Hawaiian, it is mounted on a short pointed post a foot and a half long.
Fig. 2 is an image 2 feet high found in a cave on the island of Hawaii in 1880. It is now in the Trocadero Museum, Paris. This is also mounted on a post, the end of which has been cut off.
There are also in the Bishop Museum two small “stick-gods”; the image of each not more than 6 inches high, in which the bird head of one and the human head of the other is surmounted by a crest of prongs.
Here are some more...
The last one is a headdress in a common style seen when Cook first arrived in Hawaii. The style of Te Uenuku is therefore explicitly Hawaiian as the only tangible connection.
The question is unanswered as to what it means as it conflicts with the Maori meaning, as they tied an old story to the artifact - in the same way they tied an old folk story to the carved Korotangi bird. But the question remains whether the pou was brought here by Hawaiians, (no it wasn't) or brought to Raiatea during the religious revival before the wars broke out and then brought to NZ. This is also untrue. You see, the pou was carved from Totara, so it was made in Aotearoa and nowhere else. Maybe the style could have been an interpretation of what the early Polynesian arrivals remembered from their genetic homeland. But the design is not of Maori traditional design in any shape or form. The fact that all unusual items of wood - (1) The Okia artefact, (2) the Pou from Pouto Point in Northland (3) and this item, all suffered fire damage..........and we have a theory for that
- http://tangatawhenua16.wixsite.com/the-first-ones-blog/single-post/2017/02/19/Sidestep-Te-Uenuku-Pt2
None of the items shown in that above article are traditional Maori design and yet they were all found in areas where other unusual artifacts have been discovered, and where questions have been raised about the prior inhabitants to the accepted fleet migrations. But our suggestion is not fact, it just theory that NZ history as you've believe it to be is not all it seems.
