The day tour led by a guide from the local Ngai Tahu people, starts in Christchurch, known as the most “English” of New Zealand’s cities. The (modestly-sized) River Avon meanders through the city centre and adjacent Hagley Park, historic buildings house a lively arts community and restored trams make it easy for visitors to get around. We will make a short stop at the pou pou outside the Town Hall for an introduction to Ngai Tahu, the Iwi for much of the South Island
Weka Pass (a Weka is an endemic flightless bird, the South Island species is Galliralus australis) is an easy 70km north of Christchurch.
Maori first explored the Weka Pass area about 1000 years ago. The area was originally forested, and Maori would visit the area on their seasonal round for mahinga kai - food gathering. Birds were abundant, and included the now extinct moa and koreke (quail), as well as weka, kereru, kaka, kiwi, and various waterfowl and freshwater fish in the streams. Maori used the large overhanging limestone shelter as a temporary overnight camp. It was during these stays that they drew on the shelter wall, using charcoal from their fires, and red ochre (haematite). The drawings are mainly of human figures, fish and dogs.
The first European to see the rock art was probably explorer and surveyor Frederick von Haast. He roamed the South island extensively in the latter half of the 19th century. Von Haast had T.S. Cousins, one of his team from the Canterbury Museum, carefully captured the wall of drawings in a cave in the Weka Pass and these records are a primary source of our present-day understanding of early Maori drawing in the area.
The artistic quality of the drawings went largely unnoticed until the 1950’s and 60’s when Dutch artist Theo Schoon and New Zealand artist Gordon Walters began to investigate and publicise them. Schoon made the study and development of works from the drawings his lifetime’s work. The drawings are generally recognized as examples of the art of the Waitaha people, whose descendants survive today despite their ancestors having been absorbed by other tribes of the area, notably Katimamoe and Kaitahu.
The most visible art in the Weka Pass shelters are the figures that were retouched by WRB Oliver of the Dominion Museum in the 1930s. Some 50 figures were over-painted, leaving about 100 figures in their natural state. The untouched figures are very faint, but still visible.
Weka Pass is set in the Waipara wine country. From the caves we go to a local vineyard for lunch. On the return journey through Christchurch there will be a special stop at the Canterbury Museum, which featured so strongly in the early investigations of the rock art, to view the collection. The Museum has an extensive collection of Maori artefacts.
