I just did a bunch of Celtic based mugs that I carved 'knots' into.. having some fun with the Green!!
facebook gallery here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32212&id=1485764506&l=c88b6e06b3
I started this project off with an idea I had that Celtic and Maori carving/design are similar, and that immigration and settlement of New Zeland from the Celtic Isls was the connection. But 'post' research did not dig up a lot of support. Here is some info off the net.
Due to New Zea-land geographic isolation, 500 years passed (from Polynesian immigration) before the next phase of settlement, the arrival of Europeans. Only then did the original inhabitants need to distinguish themselves from the new arrivals, using the term "Mâori" which means "ordinary" or "indigenous".
The establishment of British colonies in Australia from 1788 and the boom in whaling and sealing in the Southern Ocean brought many Europeans and Americans to the vicinity of New . Some settled—for economic, religious or personal reasons.
European colonialism sent out a number of waves of migrants to New Zealand that left a deep legacy on the social and political structures of the Mâori.
Germany (forming the next biggest immigrant group after the British and Irish)
1852 only 15% of immigration was Irish.....Despite the small numbers of Irish in New Zealand in the 1840s, the islands were given Irish names. In a Royal Charter of 1840 the ‘Northern Island’ became New Ulster, the ‘Middle Island’ New Munster, and ‘Stewart’s Island’ New Zealand.
The New Zealand Company offered assisted passages to Zealand settlements in New Zealand. However, the company did not consider illiterate Irish peasants to be ‘desirable emigrants’.
and with further comparison of the two styles, I did not see real similarity other then the interesting design of the Celtic "triskele"??
here is my favorite tapa design, which I've used with Shamrocks before on my tikis
loved to find it later in my Celtic research
So here is my take on indiginouse art and settlement influences.
This I know from my love of Hopi Kachina dolls...
first off it is now PC to call them Katsina Dolls because there is no 'ch' sound in the Hopi language...
then there is this...
Katsina dolls used to look like this before the 1920s
given to babies and small children at festival/ceremonies.
After the 1800s and the influx of the 'Tourist' trade, the dolls started to look like this.
by the 70s, when i was growing up, they looked like this. Many being made by the Navajos jumping in on the 'action'....
and now there are fantastic things like this being carved from mostly one piece of 'cottonwood root', the original sacred matterial of the child's toy.
Awesome!!
anyway... here is my question... did Eroupean carving
have a majior factor in what we now see out of New Zealand??
Maybe it was those German Clock carvers!? the tools, I'm sure, helped.
just seeing if there is any pics of the old Maori stuff... I got no books on it and the net did not seem to help.
Thanks Paipo... in advance.... :wink:
[ Edited by: crazy al 2010-03-15 19:00 ]
