Ngarino Ellis - Maori Art Transformed

In  A Whakapapa of Tradition: 100 Years of Ngati Porou Carving, 1830 to 1930, Ngarino Ellis explores the rapid evolution of Maori art in the 100 years from 1830 when three dominant art traditions - war canoes, decorated storehouses and chiefly houses - declined and were replaced by whare karakia (churches), whare whakairo (decorated meeting houses) and wharekai (dining halls). Explaining this transformation, she focuses on the Iwirakau school of carving from the East Coast and the impact these carvers had on Maori art. Ngarino Ellis (Ngapuhi, Ngati Porou) is a senior lecturer in Art History and co-ordinator of the Museums and Cultural Heritage Programme at the University of Auckland.