Artwork Information

Angas’s accompanying text:

PLATE XXXI.

NATIVES OF PORT NICHOLSON.

1. A girl at Pipitea.

The subject of this sketch is a Maori girl belonging to the small Pah of Pipitea, close to the town of Wellington in Port Nicholson Harbour: she is clothed in a coarse garment of unbleached flax, beneath which an old shawl is visible: in her ear is the mako taniwa, or tooth of the tiger shark. In the background is a carved stile leading into a potato garden.

2. A boy of Te Aro.

Whilst Pipitea occupies the suburbs of Wellington on the one hand, Te Aro Pah bounds it on the other: both Pahs are however fast decreasing since the establishment of the town, and some of the natives now occupy cottages built by Europeans. The boy whose portrait is here given is son of one of the inmates of Te Aro, and belongs to the Nga ti awa [sic] tribe: he is clad in a piece of blanket. Beyond is shewn a portion of the fence-work dividing one courtyard within the Pah from another: the stem of the tree fern is frequently employed for this purpose, amongst the upright stakes. In the distance is a dog's skin stretched out to dry between a framework of sticks, to which it is fastened by means of flax cord.

3. E Rangi and E Tohi, girls of Port Nicholson, with Kiko, an old woman of Tiakiwai.

These portraits were sketched in an old cook-house at Tiakiwai, a small settlement close to Pipitea: the old woman, Kiko, affords a strong contrast to the more pleasing faces of the girls, who are paying a visit to the aged crone in her dilapidated hut. E Tohi, the girl to the right, is dressed in a kaitaka, richly ornamented; and her companion, who is squatting on a sleeping mat of green raupo, wears a plainer variety, the fringe of which is dyed with a decoction of hinau bark.