Artwork Information

This iridescent tonal portrait borrows from a well-known carved self-portrait of Ngāpuhi chief Hongi Hika, who played a key role in the New Zealand Musket Wars, a series of battles between Māori which took place over a 30-year period from 1807 and resulted in significantly altered rohe (tribal territorial boundaries). Shane Cotton appends native and exotic birds to Hika’s full-face moko, which act as symbols of hope, and a target which represents a warning of danger. Hika’s original portrait was made in 1814 in Sydney, where he met the missionary Samuel Marsden. This painting is named after one of Hika’s guns and a famous battle between Ngāti Maru and Ngāpuhi.

Ko tēnei whakaahua kiritangata uiraira whai tāhina he mea e tohutoro ai i te whakairo whakaahua kiriaro rongonui mō Hongi Hika nō Ngāpuhi, nōna tētahi tūnga nui i roto i ngā Pakanga Pū, he pakanga kei waenganui i ngā Māori mō ngā tau 30, mai i te tau 1807, ka mutu ka tino rerekē haere te mana whenua o tēnā iwi, o tēnā iwi. Kua tāpirihia e Shane Cotton ngā manu māori me ngā manu tauhou ki te moko kanohi o Hongi Hika, hei tohu mō te tūmanako, hei keo hoki – he mea whakatūpato. I hangaia te whakaahua kiritangata taketake i te tau 1814, i Poihākena, ko tērā te wāhi i tūtaki ai ia i a Samuel Marsden. Kua tapaina tēnei toi peita mō tētahi o ngā pū o Hika, me tētahi pakanga rongonui i waenganui i a Ngāti Maru rāua ko Ngāpuhi.