Korotangi – Sacred Bird of Tainui
The origins of the Korotangi remain a mystery, although it is now almost 100 years since it was found by a Maori imbedded in the roots of an upturned manuka tree, between Aotea harbour and Raglan. All that is definitely known is that it was discovered in 1878, that it weighs 4 Ib 10 oz, is 10 inches long and is finely carved from a dark green serpentine.
The Korotangi bird at first glance resembled a prion or whalebird, until it was noted that instead of having a united nasal tube, the Korotangi had lateral nostrils at the base of the beak, rather like a ducks. No-one knew how long it had been under the tree, but one thing was clear, it bore no resemblance to any known carving.
The Korotangi was first aquired by Albert Walker, who left it for a short time with Major Drummond Hay of Cambridge, and it was during it’s stay in Major Drummonds home that the first clue came to Korotangi’s identity.
An old chieftainess, seeing the stone bird, immediately bowed before it and began to sing a lament to the Korotangi. The news of the find soon spread amongst the Maori and all who saw it, claimed it was the sacred talisman, Korotangi, brought to NZ in the Tainui waka.
The korotangi was said to have been stored at “Te Ahurei”, the wananga or school of learning, along with other precious stone emblems, established shortly after the Tainui waka arrived in Kawhia harbour.
Later the korotangi and these other emblems were lost, causing a civil war amongst the Tainui people.
After the korotangi had been identified, it was bought by Major John Wilson as a present for his wife and many Maori chiefs visited the Wilson house to view the famous stone bird, including: Tawhiao, King Potatau 11 and Rewi Maniapoto, who asked if he could have the korotangi in his bedroom. His wish was granted and it is said, he rose several times in the night to tangi over it.
One of the visiting Maori chiefs, Te Ngakau of the Ngati Mahuta, commented that ‘This is not a Maori bird, look at the carved feathers, it comes from a distance…a foreign land or over the sea’.
He considered the korotangi to be so tapu that he pleaded with mrs Wilson to throw it into the Waikato river lest she suffer makutu, or bewitchment. But the korotangi remained in the Wilson family. A son Jack later had it housed in the Bank of New Zealand and upon his death, his widow placed it on loan to the Dominion Museum with the provison that it always be kept in the light and never shut away in the dark.
The legend of the korotangi is that it came in the Tainui waka as one of the heirlooms which had been blessed by the high priests in Hawaiiki and which in the new country, would ensure good hunting for the tribe. It was said that the Kawhia and Waikato tribes, who descended from Tainui stock, took the korotangi into battle with them, setting it up on a hill and consulting it as an oracle.
The “korotangi” can mean “to roar and rush as the sound of water” in either Maori, Hawaiian or Samoan has been used to support the legend that it was bought on the Tainui waka from afar.
Sacred talismans such as the korotangi were said to have been brought to NZ by other famous canoes. The canoe Mataatua, which landed at Whakatane, brought the taukata, and the Arawa canoe brought the matuatonga, a little stone kumara god.
What suggests that the stone bird, that was found near Aotea, was the korotangi brought on the Tainui waka, were the numerous laments throughout the country by the Maori people.
There have been several versions of how the korotangi came about, but regardless of the stories, the Tainui people believe wholeheartedly that the korotangi which was housed in the Dominion museum, was their stone bird which came to New Zealand in their waka.
In 1995 the korotangi was returned to the Tainui people as part of the government settlement of their claims under the treaty of Waitangi.
The Korotangi is unlike any other piece of Maori art and it was probably carved with metal tools unknown to the Maori and its history may never be known. It could have been one of the cleverest hoaxes perpetrated in New Zealand; it could equally be a relic of early European contact with the Maoris. Or it may be, as some have claimed, one of the oldest surviving works of early man, carried reverently across the ocean by the ancestors of the Maori from some far distant homeland in Asia.