Karaitiana Te Rango

From Inland Patea, a today little-known name for the area around Taihape, Karaitiana Te Rango was a staunch advocate for his people and their land. In an 1861 letter to Donald McLean jointly signed by Ngati Tama rangatira he advised the boundaries of their land, firmly warning the colonial administrator not to listen to anyone else who may claim it: ‘ahakoa rangatira, ahakoa tangata noa iho, ahakoa tangata mohio, ko ena tangata he tangata tahae.’ [‘whether he be chief, an ordinary person, or an intelligent man, any of those could be dishonest.’] Turnbull, MS-Papers-0032-0691C-05

Te Rango commissioned this portrait himself from Gottfried Lindauer in Hastings in 1885, paying the artist £30. It was one of many portraits Lindauer painted for Māori clients and can be understood quite differently from those in the Gallery’s Partridge collection as a result. While Lindauer worked from a photograph for both – in this case an image taken by Napier-based photographer Samuel Carnell – Karaitiana could have had some say in the way he was represented. Lindauer closely followed the photograph for the face and distinctive plaited hair adorned with the feathers of a huia and possibly toroa or albatross. Although as was Lindauer’s custom he did soften the signs of age across the brow and around Karaitiana’s eyes and tidied his beard. The dress is however entirely different, in the photograph he wears a kahu kurī or dogskin cloak, whereas in the painting a kaitaka (muka cloak) is over Karaitiana’s shoulders with a taniko border visible at the wrist, over which a kahu kiwi is draped. The mere pounamu and earring are also additions. One would expect that these were changes that Karaitiana had a say in as commissioner, although unfortunately we have no record.

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