staff('rakau whakapapa')
- Museum number
- Oc1854,1229.22
- Description
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Genealogical staff, rakau whakapapa. Wooden staff: brown, flattish, upright figure at top with naturalistic face with male tattoo, three-fingered hands on stomach, body covered in rauponga. Scalloped knobs along the length of the staff on one side: top fifteen in rauponga, remaining three plain. Whakarare along each side of rauponga knobs. Upper surfaces of knobs are flat and plain, except for the lowest rauponga knob, which has polished piece of nephrite set into it. Barb shape at lower end.
- Production date
- 19thC
- Dimensions
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Height: 103.50 centimetres
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Width: 5.50 centimetres
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Depth: 4 centimetres
- Curator's comments
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Starzecka, Neich & Pendergrast 2010
Provenance: Grey Collection.
Register: ‘This staff records the history of the Ngati-Rangi [Ngaiterangi? Ngati Rangitihi?] tribe. It belonged last to a chief named Te Korokai [of Ngati Whakaue, Ohinemutu, Rotorua?] and was used to aid the memory when a chief was recounting the history of his tribe.’
Comments: Arawa, 1800s–1820s (RN); Taupo, nineteenth century, Te Heuheu’s whakapapa stick (DRS).
References: British Museum 1925: fig. 171; Edge-Partington 1969 i: 375.1; Hamilton 1901: 416, pl. lvii, fig. 4; Te Awekotuku 1996: 31.
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Information from Pacific Art in Detail: This staff represents the flow of ancestral power (mana) along a particular line of descent from the divine ancestor (atua) down to the living holder. Before this staff was given to George Grey by Te Korokai, it was used as a memory aid for the orators when recounting their genealogy (wakapapa).
Each projection on this staff represents a generation related to its owner: it was used by Te Korokai as a memory aid to account for the eighteen generations before him, establishing his hereditary right to leadership.
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Information recorded in Extracts from the British and Medieval Register 1757-1878, pp. 153-154 'This staff records the history of the Ngati-Rangi tribe. It belonged last to a chief named Te Korokai and was used to aid the memory when a chief was recounting the history of his tribe.'
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2003, Apr-Sep, BM, 'Museum of the Mind: Art and Memory in World Cultures'
2006-2007 28 Sept-7 Jan, London, BM, Power and Taboo
2010/11 15 Oct-18 Sept The Netherlands, Leiden, National Museum of Ethnology,Maori Mana: de kracht van de Maori (the power of the Maori)
- Acquisition date
- 1854
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1854,1229.22