Maori Wood Carving

I took and posted far too many pictures of this particular meeting hall. It was built in the 1930s by the Maori in commemoration of the signing of the peace treaty between the British Government and the Maori people. The treaty was signed in 1840 and ended a particularly nasty conflict between the Maori and the British Government. Surprisingly, the Maori got the better end of the deal and even now there is considerable debate regarding the verbiage of the dual language treaty. Amazing carving. It took 6 years for craftsmen to carve this buildings structural posts and to carve the canoe shown below. The location is Waitangi, on the Bay of Islands. Its definitely worth reading about. Look it up sometime.

Note the detail. Each post is directly linked to its polar opposite on the other side of the room via the decorative roof beam. Each opposite pair of posts represents a particular tribe or sub tribe of the Maori.

It actually took three Kauri trees to carve this beast of a war canoe. I don't remember the dimensions, but suffice it to say its a large canoe. It was built for the 100 yr anniversary of the treaty between the Maori and the British Crown in 1940. It holds 160 warriors, weighs several tons and takes a week of soaking to swell up the joints enough to stop the leaks at the seams between the tree trunks that this hull is carved from.
To the left: Katrina posing in the entry way to the museum. If you make it to NZ and the north Island. Take the time to go to Waitangi and visit the Treaty Grounds and museums.