NZ 27 Canterbury Museum, Christchurch
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| Canterbury Museum |
We
took the trolley to the Museum. It was a bit of a hike and a bit warm, so we
used public transport. I love using buses, trolley’s, subways, etc. it’s fast
and easy and much cheaper than an Uber… yes, we could have used a Lime scooter,
but we didn’t have the app.
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| Primitive Living |
Ah,
museums, some love them, some not so much. As for me, they give me a lot of
info I like to know about, especially when it is a regional museum because
Canterbury is the region Christchurch is in. Hence the name! A museum is a
place where history seems to be condensed, pulled together as a memorial or a
visual library. I always find stuff I like to look at, events I like to think
about.
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| Manual Labour For Building |
The
main focus of this Museum near the Botanical Garden was the Maori.
Understandable since the Maori added so much to the flavor of NZ and to
Christchurch in particular. It is said that the surrounding area of
Christchurch is the spot where the first Maoris landed; where they started to
settle in NZ. I don’t know how they know that, but that is what I read.
Displays
were set up to show how life might have been for the first Maori settlers. I
guess the displays were based on studied archeology, but I had another opinion.
Here are some pictures of how these
scientists explain things:
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| Moa Skeleton Beside an Emu Skeleton |
Look at the size of this skeleton, the Moa was a huge bird and yielded lots of meat to eat, no wonder the people hunted them to extinction.
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| Shaping Stone Into Spear Tips, Knives |
The picture shows how very basically the first Maoris lived; it must have been
an adventurous life but a hard life, living off the land is not easy.
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| Wood Carving |
Throughout all their hardships though, there
was their belief system and their art. Those wood carvings expose their inner
physic fears and deeper venerations the Maori brought with them.
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| Huge Green Stone |
Look
at the size of this green stone, a treasure find, the lucky person who found
this sure could live off the prestige this rock would give him. It’s like
finding gold or a diamond in today’s age.
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| Facial Tattoos |
As
you can see, NZ is very proud of their Maori heritage. Their very different way
of living is still mysterious to many, including me. Those face tattoos for example,
would you walk around with one of those?
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| 3 Native New Zealanders With Their Heads Ornamented According to Their Tribe |
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| Sacred Tree Carving |
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| Each Carving is Unique |
It
must have puzzled lots of people because the explanations given by the Museum get
a bit confusing, even the Maori have a bit of a hard time explaining those.
It
is said that the ‘old’ Maori made those carvings into Kopi Trees. Some
old Kopi Trees still exist that show those carvings. Those trees are under a
protection program today, but NZ knows exactly where they are.
Who
made those carvings? The Maori the
Scientists would say, “Oh, really?”
Those
‘old’ tribes had names and traditions totally different from the Maori of today.
The ‘old’ tribes were different from the Maori; they spoke different languages.
Where did “they” come from?
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| Hunting For Dinner |
In
one room I am told that the Maori came around 1250 AD, and here in this room are
older tribes, different tribes?
Wait
a second! Something is off!
After
thinking about this, looking at some other histories. I am more inclined to
state:
I
believe the Tree Carvers were a different people, an earlier people than the
Maori who when they arrived in their canoes, mostly eliminated the Tree
Carvers.
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| Burial Box |
The
explanations of their ‘old’ tribal names did not add to a true explanation in
my eyes. Those ‘old’ Maori were named Moriori or some named them Manu (Birds).
But
in Maori oral tradition they came from older tribes named: Tangata Whenua
and
those again came from the Tchaket Henu.
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| Even Their Carvings Are Fierce |
So does that not tell me that the Maori are not the first settlers?
It
is a fact that the Maori killed thousands of Moriori on Chatham Island as late
as 1835 or so. So the Maori do not come across as gentle people but rather
ferocious and war-like. Cannibalism was part of the Maori’s way of life.
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| Intricate Wood Carving |
It
is totally feasible that Australian Natives somehow settled in NZ first. Those
people were hunters and gatherers; they had no permanent settlements as we know
from Australian history. Then, when the Maori arrived, they just killed the
Australians off. Now, how is that for a hypothesis…?
I
have learned to read between the lines when I visit a museum, as you can see.
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| Green Stone Pendent |
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| Penny Farthing Bike |
The
Canterbury Museum is a good place. There are many interesting things to visit,
to explore. I even had a chance to sit on a penny-farthing bike.
I
saw an awesome Hei Tiki Pendant
The
Museum even had graffiti inside their staircase 2108 and that leads us to our next blog…
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| Graffiti in the Stairwell |
