Word: wana
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Even for the uninitiated viewer, the ancestral figures truly project the qualities the Maoris attribute to them: ihi (power), wehi (fear) and wana (authority). Often as grotesque as gargoyles, the heads are covered with the distinctive Maori designs used as tattoos. The slanty, abalone-shell eyes are as impenetrable as mirrors. Sometimes a broad-based tongue juts out in the Maori gesture of raging self-assertion. The broad, lumpy body may be scrunched down in the warrior's crouch, or, ready to spring, the fighter may hold a paddle-shaped club designed to strike a blow at an enemy...
Dominating the show by its size (16 ft. 5½ in.) and superabundance of ihi, wehi and wana is the figure that once served as the gateway of Pukeroa pa, a fortified village. Though it is difficult to date most Maori sculpture precisely, this piece was made in the mid-19th century. Less fierce than similar gateway figures, the figure still casts a gaze threatening enough to intimidate any potential thief prowling through the Maori show...