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Sir Āpirana Ngata
Accession Number:
UC-MBL-2028
Sub Collection:
Macmillan Brown Library Sub Collection
Creator:
  • Fraser, Alexander Roderick, 1877-1953 
  • Date of Creation:
    c.1945
    Media:
    Plaster bust.
    Description:
    Āpirana Turupa Ngata (1874-1950) of Ngāti Porou, was the first Māori graduate from the University of Canterbury. He was also a revered leader of his people, national politician and prolific scholar.

    The portrait plays an important role in Māori culture. Māori kept carved images of beloved and respected ancestors close in their Whare Nui. More than just decoration, these carvings record the history and whakapapa of the iwi. Roger Blackly has also noted that Māori were quick to adopt new forms of portraits, hanging paintings and photographs alongside the existing carvings on marae.

    In 1901 the Lindauer Art Gallery opened in Queen St Auckland. Āpirana Ngata visited the gallery, and recorded his feelings in the visitors' book; 'I am from Ngāti Porou. I have come here to lament over the great men of other days, the people brought before us coloured as if they were living. Pleasing to the eye is the shadow-carving of the European artist - it is as if they had all arisen from the dead. Thankful are we to the man who has preserved these pictures of our elders, our old chiefs, as a treasure for the years that are to come.'
    Size:
    Actual - 510 x 490 x 300 mm