The rituals and processes relating to hika ahi (fire making) are
the subject of this trapezoid-shaped scene painting. In Lindauer's
portrayal a man and woman are engaged in producing fire for a hāngī
within the pā. Māori understandings and rituals pertaining to fire
often recall a collaboration between male and female in the
practice and process of creating fire. Fire is created using a fire
plough, usually made of the kaikōmako tree, a hardwood that proved
a great carrier and medium. Kaurima, or pointed-end sticks, were
rubbed vigorously by the male while the female held the plough in
place. The kaurima were rubbed against kaunoti (grooved battens) in
the plough which would produce both sawdust and heat. When smoke
appeared, the charred sawdust was placed on kindling and blown
until it caught alight.
Māori oral narratives tell of the deity Māui and his bringing
the knowledge of fire to this world from Mahuika, the female deity
of fire. Indeed, the kaikōmako tree is known as Mahuika's tree
because she threw her last fingernail of fire into this tree.
However, fire and the practice of making fire have many levels of
ritual relating to use and function. For example, Elsdon Best notes
over twenty-eight names for the ritual use of fire; these range
from:
Ahi taitai: a tapu (sacred) fire
over which a karakia is chanted to protect the life principle of
man
Ahi torongu: a ritual fire to expel
insects and pets from destroying food crops
Ahi manawa: a ritual fire for
cooking the heart of those slain in battle.1
Ahi, or fire, was understood and applied in a range of ways.
Lindauer's scene shows male and female collaborating to produce
fire. The woman holds the plough in place with her foot while the
man rubs the kaurima continually to create friction and heat, which
would eventually smoulder and be encouraged into a small fire
through blowing. A prepared fire stack of neatly placed rocks has a
wood pile atop. This is a hāngī ready for lighting and the cooking
of kai. In the background is the vast landscape of the pā which is
encircled by an impressive pā tūwatawata. Fire Making was
the last of the eight large scene paintings commissioned for Henry
Partridge.
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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