4. Los conceptos jurídicos indeterminados
4.4. Estructura
4.4.2 Zona de imprecisión, halo de concepto, o zona de
It is to be expected that acts of authorship and resistance are often careful and deliberate in their intent as Māori and Videogames exemplifies. Away from these considerations lies embodiment, where social or cultural aspects arise through no deliberate evocation. In light of this, two related posts on Puehu shall be examined, as a specific articulation of Māori cultural identity in regards to taonga. Both related to the work of expert East Coast carver and painter Riwai Pakerau. The first, Riwai Pakerau’s Carvings and Kowhaiwhai (2011, June 10), briefly tells the story of Pakerau and documents, in images, several of his works that are on loan to the Auckland War Memorial Museum.124 The second untitled post is a video made during the visit to the Auckland Museum, recording the journey through the storerooms and capturing Pakerau’s mahi (work).125 The first post provides a brief history of Pakerau and the text of which shall be cited in full.
During the hauhau wars, Riwai Pakerau was wounded in battle, when Te Kooti fired point blank into his eyes. As Te Kooti knew Riwai personally, this was a personal vendetta for Riwai taking up arms against him. Riwai spent the rest of his life blinded by the wounds he had received. In this blinded state he was known as Riwai Kapo. He survived for over a hundred years and practiced the laying on of hands for the healing of the sick…Riwai was led from place to place as he was totally blind. His many great-‐grandchildren took turns to lead him around. He was painted in oil in this blind state.
(Puehu, 2011, June 10)
Then, through an adaption of Auckland Museum’s records, one black and white image and fourteen photographs the works of Pakerau are recorded in situ amongst other objects housed in Auckland Museum’s Māori artefacts storage facility. Surrounded by concrete, the museum’s infrastructure, tucked behind pillars, strapped to racking and
124 Puehu. (2011, June 10). Riwai Pakerau's carvings and kowhaiwhai [Web log message].
Retrieved from http://puehu.tumblr.com/post/6377904132/riwai-‐pakeraus-‐carvings-‐and-‐ kowhaiwhai. A number are “said to be the work of Riwai Pakerau.” This presumably cannot be substantiated through the museum’s records.
125 Puehu. (2011, August 15). [Untitled] [Web log message]. Retrieved from
http://puehu.tumblr.com/post/8928393956. The video is also available via YouTube. Hollis, R. (2011, August 13). Maori artifacts storage, Auckland War Memorial Museum 2008 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ston7enscnY
on shelving, the tāhuhu (carved ridge pole), pare (door lintels) and heke (rafters) with kowhaiwhai (painted scroll ornamentation) and naturalistic trees painted on them are documented.
Figure 10. Puehu. (2011, June 10). Riwai Pakerau's carvings and kowhaiwhai [Screen shot from web log message]. Retrieved from
http://puehu.tumblr.com/post/6377904132/riwai-‐pakeraus-‐carvings-‐and-‐ kowhaiwhai.126
Although brief museum-‐inspired records are present, identifying the objects, providing registration numbers and acquisition history, they are devoid of classification outside informing what they are and where they are from. There is no mentioning of how they were made, what they are made of or how they were used. Instead, the viewer is provided with minimal details and left to interpret the works as they see fit. It must be pointed out that none of Pakerau’s material is available from Auckland Museum’s Te Kakano Taonga Database, nor are their any records that mention Pakerau anywhere on their website.127
126 Pakerau, R. (n.d.). Ridgepole from Iritekura house [Wood]. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland
War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira. (46442)
127 Auckland War Memorial Museum. Te Kakano -‐ Taonga database. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://tekakano.aucklandmuseum.com/home_maori.asp?database=maori.
Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira. (n.d.). Retrieved from
While the circumventing of museum processes and not seeking permission from effected parties is questionable, Puehu’s posts have nevertheless, created an invaluable resource for those interested in the mahi of Pakerau but are unable to go to the physical museum. With particular attention to the heke, they stand out as beautiful and unique pieces of Māori art from Te Huringa (The Turning, 1800-‐present) period. Their combination of kowhaiwhai and naturalistic flora reveal a free and dynamic approach to Māori painting, escaped from the restrictiveness advocated by Dominion Museum Director Augustus Hamilton (Neich, 1990). But they also expose the stark reality of the museum’s storage facilities. This is especially evident in the video where shelves and shelves of objects are observed broken into various classificational divisions of material or collection. Notably, with the heke amongst pounamu (greenstone, jade) in various states of transformation, it shows even these divisions are difficult to maintain when space is limited. On the other hand however, the video displays a considered and uncluttered layout and within the ordered chaos the viewer is not captured by percepts of museological narrative, instead the objects are left to speak for themselves. As Hakiwai (2006) has stated, it is not plinths and labels that are important for taonga, it is their interpretation which is of the utmost value.
Figure 11. Puehu. (2011, June 10). Riwai Pakerau's carvings and kowhaiwhai [Screen shot from web log message]. Retrieved from
http://puehu.tumblr.com/post/6377904132/riwai-‐pakeraus-‐carvings-‐and-‐ kowhaiwhai.128
Further, when placing objects online, the entire page requires consideration (Cameron, 2007; Quiggin, 2006). In this regard the comments must be considered as part of the final product. Riwai Pakerau's carvings and kowhaiwhai received seven comments, by no means a grand number on the scale of things, they are nonetheless poignant in what it is they state. Within these comments there is an open discussion and reverence given to the works and the skill of Pakerau. There are two that add a little more and offer alternative or variant stories of how Pakerau lost his sight from that quoted above. They do not question the accuracy of Puehu’s post but rather engage in a
128 Pakerau, R. (n.d.). Heke from the meeting house Mauitikitikiataranga [Wood and paint].
dialogue, stating that have heard another version, which they briefly recite. These in turn are openly valued and encouraged as these stories shed new light on the artist.
With the opening paragraph outlining Pakerau’s story and the subsequent comments, the carvings and paintings displayed are engulfed in knowledge far outside the scope of typical materialist epistemologies. These words warm the objects and are undoubtedly can be understood as part of the korero that surrounds the taonga (Mead, 1990; Tapsell, 1998).
Furthermore, two individuals, establishing a direct connection between the commenter and Pakerau through reciting whakapapa, with another two commenters also declaring familial connections to Pakerau. These unprovoked evocations of whakapapa in the blog not only link the individual to the artist through direct lineage but in doing so distinct Māori paradigm is produced, and which states “I am Māori” (Mead, 2003, p. 42). Although a connection through whakapapa is not necessary to elicit a strong response to or respect towards a taonga, it is an underlying power that structures the Māori universe (Roberts & Willis, 1998). Used as mnemonic anchors the work of Pakerau has located those active within the blog in an instantiation of kaupapa Māori (Colmer, 2010). This distinct enactment, in culmination with the associated online discussion all hark to the alchemy of taonga as outlined by Tapsell (1998) and Salmond (1984).
As objects, Pakerau’s works are imbued with mauri but more so as empowered objects of mātauranga Māori they also contain the wairua of the artist as manifest in the designs. Thus analogons, as direct correlations or differenciated actualisations of objects of mātauranga Māori they too have been acknowledged with an according respect. This discloses a relationship of reciprocation. Where the virtuality within taonga has actualised the analogon necessitating the relationship to the taonga is acknowledge through its differentiation. This alchemic power has then instantiated kaupapa Māori within the digital realm. This suggests the digital images and text within this blog are then not respected for depicting Pakerau’s mahi but as a manifestation of the virtual made actual through differenciation.
There are comparative occurrences evident on the Whakamīharo Lindauer Online website presented by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.129 Nevertheless, it is the latent articulation of mātauranga and kaupapa Māori within a non-‐institutional or non-‐iwi setting that makes it stand out. Away from places where such manifestations are intentionally evoked this occurrence is evidence that the alchemy of taonga is transcendent even in digital terms.
Throughout the blog there has been an effective utilisation of the essential elements of the digital object. From Te Ao recognising the lack of fixity whereby employing the interactive distributed nature of the space to empower the site specificity of his works, to the editability inherent by bringing objects together exposing the underlying discourse and reinstating the authored. But foremost, in posting images of taonga the digitality within the blog aided in the manifestation of a unique alchemic entity. Not taonga, but a differenciated embodiment of it.
As stated, not every post in the blog relates to the articulation of Māori culture. And only a handful of those that do, have been examined here. But it is clear Puehu articulates Māori culture in diverse and enlivened ways. Whether drawing attention to new intentionally bold expressions, politically charged acts of resistance or much more subtle actualisations of distinct Māori knowledge. This multifacetedness is exactly why Garden (2012) argues blogs as a medium are difficult to compartmentalise. Nevertheless, Puehu operates as a place of cultural expression, experience and critique. In doing so, they occupy a third space, not reduced to a constrained traditionalism, nor subsumed into cultural hegemony but undeniably Māori.
129 Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. (2009). Whakamīharo Lindauer Online. Retrieved from http://www.lindaueronline.co.nz/. This is a very good website dedicated to Gottfried Lindauer’s portraits of Māori leaders.