Preparing the land for kūmara planting started with the breaking
of the soil with the kō, a digging stick with a footrest lashed to
its base. Kūmara were traditionally planted in diagonal lines to
allow the sun to reach between the rows. This was a physically
demanding and skilled task, one that was crucial in securing a
successful harvest. Early visitors to Aotearoa New Zealand were
impressed by Māori cultivation, and entrepreneurial tribes grew
crops both for local settlers and to export to Australia and
California.
In Digging with the Ko, Lindauer portrays how the
cultivation of food crops and horticulture, more generally, was a
vital undertaking. Mahinga kai were important spaces that were
fenced off within the pā site. In the painting the main
meetinghouse structures are some distance away. The lush green
bushline running along from the right is highlighted by a line of
tī kōuka that puncture the skyline and suggest that the land is
fertile and rich. The growing of kūmara was an especially sacred
practice and for many tribes was dedicated to the deity
Rongo-mā-Tāne, the atua of the kūmara. Stone effigies of
Rongo-mā-Tāne or other tribal kaitiaki figures were placed in the
gardens to guard the crops and ensure fertility. This ritual
included incantations offered for a successful harvest.
Lindauer depicts the men involved in the physical task of
tending and turning the soil in an array of the finest garments:
for example, full-length dress cloaks such as the kaitaka on the
central figure and a korowai worn by the man at the extreme right.
Both cloaks have been folded and layered around the waist and held
in place by plaited and woven tātua. Why would these men wear their
most treasured garments when working in the field? They wouldn't,
of course. Lindauer often utilised photographs as references and in
this case he directly follows Augustus Hamilton's 1898 photograph,
also titled Digging with the Ko, which is a
compelling example of the practice of staging images of Māori at
work and in other contexts.
Nigel Borell
(originally published in Gottfried Lindauer's New
Zealand: The Māori Portraits, edited by Ngahiraka Mason and
Zara Stanhope, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki and AUP,
2016.)
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