ARTHIST115 Chap.4 Taonga, Mana and Tapu
Taonga, Mana and Tapu
Paul Tapsell's essay on the cloak Te Kahumamae o Pareraututu explains taonga from a Te Arawa perspective rather than through outside observers. A dictionary gloss such as property misses the point; Sir Hugh Kawharu's 1989 note on the Treaty of Waitangi describes taonga as every dimension of a tribal estate, material and non-material.
Tapsell names whakapapa as the force behind the response to a taonga and identifies three elements held within it: mana from ancestors, tapu that protects that mana, and kōrero, the histories that keep its genealogical place recognised. Karakia wraps ancestral items and protects their mauri. Deidre Brown shows the same ideas at work in diplomacy.
Titore's gifts to King William IV in 1834 and the King's armour sent in return became evidence, in 2016, that Ngāpuhi never ceded sovereignty. Areta Wilkinson and Mark Adams then show artists responding to taonga held far from home. Together the readings show that a taonga is defined by relationships: who held it, what was said about it and where it now rests.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Why property is an inadequate translation of taonga
- 02
Whakapapa from Te Kore to Te Ao Mārama
- 03
Mana, tapu and kōrero as elements within a taonga
- 04
Karakia, mauri and kaitiakitanga
- 05
Titore, HMS Buffalo and the armour of 1835
- 06
Photograms of taonga in a Cambridge museum
Worked example · free
Use Tapsell's elements to analyse a gifted treasure
- 1Identify: a mere pounamu named Puwaro, sent by the Ngāpuhi rangatira Titore with two garments when HMS Buffalo sailed in 1834.
- 1Explain the name: a personal name marks a special taonga of the kind reserved for ceremonial exchange between tribes to forge relationships.
- 1Apply mana: a taonga carries the mana of those associated with it, so the gift offered Titore's standing as well as an object.
- 1Apply kōrero: Titore dictated a letter to accompany it, attaching a history to the gift and asking for obligations in return.
- 1Conclude: Brown reads the exchange as mutual recognition between sovereign powers before the 1840 Treaty.
Key terms
- Noa
- The everyday state free of ancestral restriction, the balancing state to tapu.
- Mauri
- The life force that sustains a thing's form and binds the physical with the spiritual.
- Karakia
- Ritual recitation that mediates with the atua and wraps ancestral items in protection.
- Kaitiakitanga
- Trustee-like care of taonga by senior elders and their families under the controls of tapu.
- Taonga tuku iho
- Treasures handed down from ancestors, continuously wrapped in karakia since their creation.
- Manaakitanga
- Generous hospitality, shown by Titore's people to the crew of HMS Buffalo.
- Rangatiratanga
- Chiefly authority and Māori sovereign rights over lands, villages and taonga.
Taonga, Mana and Tapu FAQ
What are the three elements of a taonga in Tapsell's essay?
Mana, tapu and kōrero. Mana is authority transmitted through ancestors; tapu protects it from contact with the everyday; kōrero is the genealogical history attached to the item. Tapsell treats kōrero as the most important, because without it descendants can no longer recognise where the taonga sits in their whakapapa.
How could European armour become a taonga Māori?
Deidre Brown shows that the armour that King William IV sent Titore in 1835 gained mana and tapu as it passed between rangatira. Each exchange added to its story, so it became a taonga tuku iho before entering the Dominion Museum, now Te Papa, in 1908. Relationships, not place of manufacture, made it a treasure.
What is a photogram in Wilkinson and Adams's work?
A photogram is made without a camera by placing an object directly on light-sensitive paper and exposing it. Wilkinson and Adams laid taonga from a Cambridge museum on cyanotype paper, so each image records the treasure's brief touch and leaves its shadow. The absence of the object is the point.
What does mana mean in Tapsell's reading?
Authority, power, prestige and status, a power that comes from the gods and is handed down through ancestors. A taonga gains mana from the rank of those who used it, and that mana grows with the seniority and number of the kin group's descendants. Tapu must accompany mana so that the item's sanctity is protected.
Exam move
Write each Māori term on a card with Tapsell's definition and one object it explains. Then practise a three-sentence analysis of any taonga in the course that applies mana, tapu and kōrero in order. Add Brown's Titore exchange as your case study for taonga and politics, learning the dates 1833, 1834, 1835, 1908 and 2016 as one sequence, because a sequence is easier to recall under time pressure than five separate facts.
When you revise, say each term aloud with its English gloss until the pairing is automatic.
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