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Ea-Hei-No-Maue (New Zealand), A facsimile of a chart of New…
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Melbourne
Date:
28-Jun-2017
Lot No.
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Description:
Ea-Hei-No-Maue (New Zealand), A facsimile of a chart of New Zealand drawn by Too-gee' reproduced as a fold-out chart in David Collin's 'An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales...' [Cadell && Davies, London, 1798]. Tuki (or Too-gee) was the son of a tohunga, one of two young M'ori kidnapped in 1793 off the Cavalli Islands and taken to Norfolk Island to teach convicts how to dress flax, a singularly unsuccessful project as preparing and using flax was largely women's work. The map was drawn to better communicate with, and possibly at the behest of the lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island, Philip King. It is possible that Tuki was attempting to indicate where he and Huru should be returned to, which eventually did happen. The map was initially drawn by chalk on the floor of a room and then transferred to paper. Annotations were mostly done by King's secretary. The map is not to scale and the area Tuki was familiar with (Northland) is shown disproportionately large. He was clearly aware of the South Island's existence, despite never having travelled there. The double dotted line indicates the pathway taken by spirits of the dead departing for the underworld. Other details, presumably dictated by Tuki, relate to the political alliances, fighting strength, location and size of local populations.
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Unclassified