Tuterei Karewa of the Ngatimaru tribe, North Island, New Zealand

This photograph depicts Tuterei Karewa of the Ngatimaru tribe, North Island, New Zealand. It was taken by the New Zealand photographer Arthur James Iles. It is one of a series of twenty studio portraits of Maori taken by Iles in Museum Victoria's collections. A professional photographer active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Iles photographed a range of subjects including people, landscapes, historical and tourist sites as well as indigenous flora and fauna. Iles's specialisation was portraiture, particularly of the Maori population. Maori life had been a common subject among photographers since the 1850s. Popular with the non-Indigenous population, several categories of Maori pictures dominated the market. These included nostalgic depictions of 'beauties' and 'noble warriors' and the re-enactment of pre-contact life. The emergence of postcards around the beginning of the 20th century resulted in a resurgence in the production of photographs of Maori. A business man, Iles recognised this renewed interest in Maori culture. He drew on established subjects, photographing senior men and young women. Iles's efforts to attract Maori to his studios were aided by two factors. Firstly his association with Captain Gilbert Mair, a highly regarded captain of Maori troops loyal to the colonial government, facilitated visits by Maori community. Secondly, his marriage to Rebecca Elsie Utuatonga, a Maori woman, is likely to have assisted him to encourage young women to be photographed. In this photograph, Tuterei Karewa is adorned with a full face moko [Maori tattoo]. The moko appears to have been enhanced by the photographer for aesthetic emphasis, a common practice in studio portraiture of this type. Moko often referenced whakapapa [genealogical lines] and acknowledged the status and rank of a person. They were also a form of personal adornment. Tuterei Karewa is dressed in a pihepihe. A style of kakahu [Maori cloak], pihepihe are decorated with pokinikini or cylindrical flax tags. The chequered effect of the tags is created by scraping away the surface skin of the flax at regular intervals to reveal the muka [flax fibre] inside. The garment is woven together and dyed, often in paru [mud rich in iron oxide]. The exposed fibres absorb the dye creating the tonal variation.