Hannah Reed

4/12/17

Period 7

Tamati Waka Nene Malangan figure

Paintings like Tamati Waka Nene, record likenesses and bring ancestral presence into the

world of the living. This portrait is not merely a representation of Tamati Waka Nene, it can be

an embodiment of him. The subject of this portrait, Tamati Waka Nene, was a Rangatira or chief

of the Ngti Hao people in Hokianga, of the Ngpuhi iwi or tribe, and an important war leader.

He was revered throughout his life as a man with great mana or personal efficacy. In this portrait,

Nene wears a kahu kiwi, a fine cloak covered in kiwi feathers, and an earring of greenstone or

pounamu. Both of these are prestigious taonga or treasures. He is holding a hand weapon known

as a tewhatewha, which has feathers adorning its blade and a finely carved hand grip with an

abalone or paua eye. All of these mark him as man of mana or personal efficacy and status. But

the most striking feature for an international audience is his intricate facial tattoo, called moko. It

is likely that Lindauer based this portrait on a photograph taken by John Crombie, who had been

commissioned to produce 12 photographic portraits of Mori chiefs for The London Illustrated

News.

The Malangan figure was made for malangan, a cycle of rituals of the people of the north coast

of New Ireland, an island in Papua New Guinea. Malangan express many complex religious and

philosophical ideas. They are principally concerned with honoring and dismissing the dead, but they also

act as affirmation of the identity of clan groups, and negotiate the transmission of rights to land. They are

symbolic of many important subjects, including identity, kinship, gender, death, and the spirit world. They
often include representations of fish and birds of identifiable species, alluding both to specific myths and

the animal's natural characteristics. It was one a group of carvings made to be displayed at a

particular malangan ritual. It is made of wood, vegetable fiber, pigment and shell.