Manu aute

Shared by Auckland War Memorial Museum

The manu aute is built in a birdlike form with extended wings and its body and head are made to resemble those of a human being. The materials it is made of are raupo, harakeke (flax), paua, kareao (supplejack), wool, linen and cotton. The frame of the mask is made of kareao split to allow the basic contours of the face to be formed. The frame is then bound together with flax cord and covered with pages from an 1884 issue of 'Ko te Kahiti o Niu Tireni', a gazette issued by the New Zealand government. Parts of the mask are padded with cotton wool and then the whole is covered with a layer of beaten bark cloth. The mouth of the mask is shaped, then covered with linen and bound with flax cord before being sewn on to the frame. The eyes are made of discs of paua shell. At one time a covering of hawk feathers with their quills split in order to move in the wind, encircled the head. Many of the original facial features and decorative elements of the mask have now gone. A moko painted on the mask's surface can no longer be seen and a shark tooth pendant from the right ear along with a band around the neck have also gone (1). The body of the kite is made from a frame of thin manuka or kanuka sticks, bound together by diagonal lashings with a fine flax cord. The framework of the wings is comprised of twelve light sticks of the same wood, the tapered ends of which are bound together to form a length running the distance of the extended wings. Across these, longitudinal spars (a series of six or seven evenly spaced short sticks) are lashed at right angles. As the wings narrow towards the tips, the number of sticks in each series reduces to four or five. The body is made in a similar manner, with seven struts comprising the vertical frame and a series of cross sticks like those on the wings forming the horizontal frame. This series of cross sticks, both on the wings and the body, is pigmented alternatively red and black (1)