In 2015 I came across this photo of an unidentified Maori woman on the internet.
Because I used it to produce the painting below I came to know it quite intimately.
Early January 2020 I walked into the Taranaki Museum and came across this exhibit:
I stopped in my tracks. My unidentified subject was revealed as Waikawa, or Rawinia, Barrett the wife of whaler and trader Dicky Barrett - after whom Barrett's Hotel and Barrett's Reef are named.
In my mind there was no doubt at all that the photo had lent itself to the woodcut. This was a fairly exciting discovery to me.
But as I absorbed the information overnight I realised that there was a fly in the ointment. Next day I went into the reference section of the Taranaki library and read all I could about Dicky and Rawinia Barrett. Plenty about him but very little about her. Then I went and visited their joint graves.
Rawinia lived between 1811 and 1849. Before photography.
So I sent the following email to the curator:
I visited your museum for the first time on 4/1/20. You are displaying an image of Rawinia Barrett, Dicky Barrett's wife as per attached.
The image was immediately familiar to me because I produced a painting from a photograph with the same face, pose and clothing details:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C4%81_moko#/media/File:Femme_Maori_1998-3160-173.jpg
The photo is in a collection held by the French National Library and labelled as created between 1860 and 1879.
The similarity between the 'woodcut drawing' and the photo is unmistakable. I believe the woodcut drawing was executed from the photo.
But the photo could not be of Rawinia Barrett who lived between 1811 and 1849 - before the age of photography in New Zealand.
Perhaps you can check the provenance of your display image to ascertain whether she is indeed Rawinia Barrett.
I've had a look into the woodcut image that is described as depicting Rawinia Barrett, and what I've been able to find is that the image was published in the book 'Early Days Taranaki' by local historian and collector Fred B. Butler, with a credit line stating that the image was reproduced with permission from Mr and Mrs W.T. Duffin of New Plymouth (descendants of the Barretts), and that the woodcut block was loaned by the Taranaki Herald.The writer assured me that she was going to do "some more digging" and I inquired again mid March but was told nothing definitive had been discovered. I now expect the issue is not of great urgency given recent events. BUT...
But as you say, the woodblock image is very clearly an artistic derivative of the photograph that you found online, and it's certainly highly unlikely that Rawinia was ever photographed as I don't believe she left the country. So I suspect that someone along the line has incorrectly attributed the woodblock.
This is a prime example of how errors - even unintentional - become 'truths' over time.
I note that there are a couple of family trees into which descendants have put a lot of time and energy using the woodcut image to depict Rawinia.
Sadly it is not.
5 comments:
Fascinating! Thank you for posting.
Thus, once again, we have State History making mistakes and passing them off as history. Everyone mucks things up and that's OK, it's part of learning. But that is exactly why history is too important to be entrusted to governments. Their mistakes are made official and paid for and promoted without our consent and given special authority they never earned.
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Ref. http://ahnz.anarkiwi.co.nz/1832-siege-of-otaka/
What is concerning is that any google search would inform you that photography was in New Zealand in 1848. Also that although you have details of Rawinia descendants, you haven't bothered to seek permission or make contact to advise you have taken the image of their relative and used it as an object to serve your needs.
I am well aware when photography began in NZ. Too late to have captured Rawinia as a young women. She died in 1849. In fact her two daughters - as young women - were the subjects of some of the first photographic images. And why would I seek permission from people who I do not believe are her relatives? The photograph is in the possession of a French museum. Nobody knows who the subject is. There are sadly hundreds, if not thousands of Maori photographic images the subjects of which will never be identified. My aim is to preserve through replicating the image to make them more immediate and present.
"Rawinia Barrett ... or not" To Tigerlily and I, we address the lady as Hinemoa and her portrait shares an honoured place among other treasures in our home.
The painting was entrusted to us by our friend Lindsay and we are blessed to be Hinemoa's kaitiaki.
The painting is much admired and to view it, is to understand the respect a talented artist has shown to her subject matter.
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