From Heritage New Zealand, Winter 2008

by Peter Kerr and NZHPT staff

How a pouhaki ended up in a naval base on the other side of the world, was found and restored.

Her Majesty’s Naval Base, Portsmouth, is steeped in history. It’s the oldest operational base in the United Kingdom, boasts the country’s oldest dry docks and, at its height, was the largest industrial site in the world. So it comes as no surprise to discover that such a facility has been home to a unique piece of New Zealand for more than 80 years.

A Maori carved flagpole, or pouhaki, has stood in the naval base’s rose garden since 1922. This is the story of who carved it, how it got there and the efforts of a descendant of the original carver, along with conservation specialists from the UK, to preserve this taonga for future generations.

The story of the Portsmouth pouhaki began in April 1920, when it was carved in one week by Tene Waitere and Te Ngaru Ranapia of Te Arawa, as a present for Edward, Prince of Wales. Following World War I, King George V had sent his son and heir, Edward, on a tour of the dominions to thank them for their support.

Edward arrived in New Zealand on 24 April 1920, aboard the battle-cruiser HMS Renown, landing ashore to a parade of returned soldiers and a tumultuous welcome from school children. The Auckland Weekly News reported that the Prince travelled by train to Rotorua, arriving on 28 April. He met with the local Arawa tribe at Ohinemutu, where he was presented with many gifts, including fine whariki (woven mats), smoking pipes carved with Maori designs and a taiaha (long club).

The following day, the Prince attended a powhiri from the tribes of Aotearoa, where he was entertained with traditional waiata a ringa, poi and haka. It’s not clear who presented the pouhaki to him, or at what stage of the gathering it was given, but when his train pulled out of Rotorua station at 1am the next morning, the six-metre pole was aboard an open carriage.

When HMS Renown docked some weeks later in Portsmouth, Prince Edward disembarked and continued his royal and military duties. The pouhaki was left on the ship and since then has been in the guardianship of the Royal Navy. The naval base at Whale Island in Portsmouth has become the home for many gifts from different countries around the world. Up until the middle of World War II, Whale Island had its own zoo, made up of donated wild animals, while other gifts included exhibits for the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard (maritime museum).

While working on Project Hinemihi for the NZHPT in 2006 (see box), Schuster visited the Portsmouth Naval Base to inspect and assess the condition of the pouhaki. His interest in the pouhaki wasn’t just professional – he also happens to be the great-great grandson of one of the flagpole’s carvers, Tene Waitere.

“There’s lots of my koroua’s (great-great grandfather’s) work all over the place,” says Schuster. “He was a prolific carver. There’s even one of his wharenui (meeting house) in the Hamburg Museum. I knew of the pouhaki. My kuia (grandmother) talked about him quite a bit and told me about his works, so I was keen to see it.

“When I see works of my koroua for the first time, tears roll down my face. It touches your heart; they’re such a long way from home. I feel real aroha (love) for them. They’re taking Maori culture and heritage to the world.”

A quick assessment of the pouhaki revealed 80 years of exposure to the elements, with no maintenance, had taken its toll. It was weathered and cracked, the original black paint had almost completely disappeared and all the paua shell eyes had fallen out when the nails holding them in place had rusted. The pouhaki had also become the target of woodpeckers, with the birds damaging some of the upper sections of the whakairo (carved patterns). Cracks in the wood had become home to insects, attracting the hole-drilling offenders.

“Lieutenant Commander Brian Witt of the Royal Navy had taken care of the ‘pouihi,’ as he called it, to the best of his ability, but the pouhaki was clearly in need of restoration work if it was to survive much longer outdoors,” says Schuster. He discussed the future of the pouhaki with Dean Sully, a professor of archaeology and conservation at the University of London, and the two of them approached Commander Witt.

He was concerned about losing the pouhaki – but conceded the necessity of the restoration work. Knowing an indoor site might well be needed for the pouhaki, Schuster also approached Nicholas Thomas at the British Museum.

Thomas was well aware of the work of carver Tene Waitere. He was writing a book called Rauru, featuring works by him, and had compared him to painter Paul Gauguin, both of whom he saw as breaking with tradition on different sides of the world.

Schuster returned to New Zealand, and his conservation work with the NZHPT’s Maori Heritage Team, in November 2006. The following May, he heard from Nicholas Thomas, who had followed up on the work required to conserve the pouhaki.

His investigation had led him into discussions with the British Ministry of Defence, who had no record of the pouhaki in their assets register. Thomas had recently left the British Museum and been appointed to the curator position at the Cambridge University Museum of Anthropology. A joint venture was formed between Cambridge University and the British Ministry of Defence. A conservation plan for the pouhaki was drawn up, with an agreement to move the pole permanently from the Portsmouth naval base to the university’s Museum of Anthropology. The plan also included paying for Schuster to fly over to assist in the moving and restoration work at Cambridge.

But one of the requests from Thomas caused a few anxious moments for Schuster. “Nicholas, the British Navy and the contract workers wanted a karakia or Maori blessing ceremony carried out before any work on the pouhaki commenced, which was really great. I wanted to get it right, though, so before I left New Zealand I sat down with my dad and another tohunga and sorted out a karakia for the occasion, something that would settle the mauri (spirit) of the pole.”

On 25 October 2007, Schuster, accompanied by his wife, Cathy, flew to the UK, complete with replacement paua shells, totara blocks – to plug the holes made over the years by the woodpeckers – and his chisels. At the karakia ceremony, a week later, Cambridge University Museum had a special and touching surprise for Schuster. A tokotoko (carved walking stick), attributed to his koroua Tene Waitere, was brought from their museum collection for him to use in the ceremony.

Also attending were Whale Island naval personnel, Cambridge University Museum staff, Ngati Ranana (New Zealand’s London-based Maori club), University College of London archaeology staff and a TVNZ reporter.

Encasement of the pouhaki began immediately after the karakia, and it was prepared for removal from the naval base to an off-site storage centre. It took almost four days to encase the pouhaki properly for the three-hour trip to Cambridge, but it was eventually loaded onto a low-loader transport vehicle and removed.

It was met at the Cambridge end by Schuster, Thomas and Sully, who had brought with him his graduate conservation students from the University College of London to assist in the preservation work.

As well as being an unparalleled opportunity for the students, working on an artefact from the other side of the world, it was a chance for Schuster to introduce new concepts to young minds. “The students had the opportunity to talk with an indigenous person from the same culture as the artefact. I was able to personify this thing they were working on, helping them to understand the difference between a mere object and a cultural treasure – a taonga; the fact there’s a story behind this pouhaki, a spiritual side to it and the connection it has to its people and the land.”

The original black stain that had covered the pouhaki was barely discernible. Schuster thinks it was probably a natural stain – his koroua was known to favour his own mixture, a kind of matt black. There was not much that could be done about the faded stain, as conservator guidelines dictate the pouhaki’s colouring should be left in its existing state, a reflection of its arrival at this point in time.

Large cracks in the pouhaki point to the use of an unseasoned totara log for the carving, showing the rush job that was done in 1920 to complete the gift in time for the royal visit. The cracks had become a haven for a variety of European insects that could not stay when the pouhaki was eventually moved into a museum collection room.

To deal with this, the Cambridge Museum insisted on a month-long carbon dioxide treatment for the pouhaki to eliminate the pests. But there was still plenty of other work that could be done. Most of it simply required good old-fashioned elbow grease, removing decades of grime, mould and moss from the surface of the pouhaki.

This was done by Sully’s students, armed with nothing more than a lot of toothbrushes. When all the treatments and cleaning were completed, Jim was able to replace the paua eyes. The totara blocks he had brought from New Zealand were shaped to fill the woodpecker holes, attached with a special glue and then re-carved to reinstate the missing patterns.

The whole project took about six weeks. There has been some talk of coating the pouhaki in a protective layer of linseed oil, but the museum is yet to make a decision on this. The pouhaki is still being stored at Cambridge Museum’s off-site facility, but a tentative date for its installation at the anthropology gallery has been set for October-November.

Schuster plans to fly over for the pouhaki’s unveiling and will also be taking some flags with him to adorn the pole. You can bet there will be more than just professional pride when his koroua’s pouhaki is officially welcomed into its new home, thousands of miles from Aotearoa