Artwork Information

Angas's description:

"PLATE LIV.

TOEA AND SLAVE BOY.

TOEA is the daughter of Te Awaitaia or William Naylor, the Christian Chief of Waingaisa, on the West Coast. She is represented in the accompanying portrait wearing a beautiful variety of flax-mat, of the finest sort, which has been dyed of a dark purplish colour by means of a decoction of hinau bark In her ear is a bunch of albatross feathers, which are worn as an ornament.

The boy who is approaching from between one of the palisaded avenues of the pah is an attendant, the son of an individual of inferior rank; he carries a calabash of water in his hands, and his loins are girded with a small flax garment.

The opening of the avenue displays a peep across the harbour of Waingaroa, with the distant shore, and a canoe sall enlivening the blue water beyond.

Both the individuals represented in the plate belong to the Nga ti mahanga division of the Waikato tribe."