February 23 - March 6, 2004 Sculpture

Variations of Māui are found in legends throughout the Pacific. As the cheekiest mythological character Māui is probably the most loved. His adventures - mischievous, daring and humorous - are stories that attempt to explain the natural world.

Most spectacular of the tales is his fishing up the land, the North Island becoming Māui’s fish and the South Island the waka (canoe) from whence it was caught. Too lazy to go fishing with his brothers Māui lay in his house while his brothers were toiling. The complaints of the wives finally shamed him into acquiring a jawbone of his grandfather from a tapu (sacred) cave to use as a fishhook. He hid in the waka when his brothers set out the next day and sprang up when they were in the ocean. The fish he caught was so huge it stretched out over the surface of the sea with the vessel high and dry on its back. It thrashed and writhed into the mountains, cliffs, and gorges that we see in the geography of the North Island. The tail was Northland, Lake Taupo its heart, the fins Taranaki and the East Coast. Thus the head of the fish is in the south with Wellington Harbour as its mouth.