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Tā Moko

an introductory library guide
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The title-underlined links will take you directly to our catalogue
or to full text available at National Library of New Zealand.

Books | Web-links

Best, Elsdon.Tuhoe land ; notes on the origin, history, customs, and traditions of the Tuhoe or Urewera Tribe, in, Transactions and proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. vol. 30(1897) p. 22-40.

Best, Elsdon. The uhi-Māori, or native tattooing, in, Journal of the Polynesian Society ; vol. 13 (1904) p. 165-72.

Cowan, James. Māori tattooing survivals : some notes on moko, in, Journal of the Polynesian Society ; vol. 30 (1921) p. 240-45.

Ellis, Elizabeth. Te kauae o ngā wāhine Māori : the tattooing of Māori women, in, Standing in the sunshine : a history of New Zealand women since they won the vote, edited by Sandra Coney. Auckland : Viking, 1993.

Hatfield, Gordon Toi and Patricia Steur. Dedicated by blood : whakautu ki te toto. The Hague : Hunter Media, 2002.

King, Michael. Correspondence, transcripts and notes for Moko : Māori tattooing in the 20th century. Papers MS-Group-0667. Alexander Turnbull Library.

King, Michael. Moko, in, Te ao hou (1973) p. 51-52.

King, Michael. Moko and C. F. Goldie, in, Journal of the Polynesian Society ; vol. 84 (1975) p. 431-40.

King, Michael. Moko of the Māori, in, Face value : a study in Māori portraiture. Dunedin : Dunedin Fine Print, 1975.

King, Michael. On the trail of the fading moko, in, Te Māori (1973) p. 20-22.

King, Michael. Moko : Māori tattooing in the 20th century. New ed. Auckland : David Bateman, 1992. (also Alister Tayler edition, 1972)

Lindauer, Gottfried Māori paintings : pictures from the Partridge collection of paintings, edited by John Campbell Graham. Wellington : Reed, 1965.

Nikora, Linda Waimarie, Ngahuia te Awekotuku and Mohi Rua. Wearing moko : Māori facial marking in today’s world, in, Tattoo : bodies, art, and exchange in the Pacific and the West, edited by Nicholas Thomas, Anna Cole, and Bronwen Douglas. London : Duke University Press, 2005. Pp. 191-204.

Orbell, Margaret Rose. The Māori art of moko, in Te ao hou, vol. 43 (1963) p. 30-34.

Phillipps, W. J. An introduction to the study of the tattooing chisels of the Māori with notes on tattoo, in, Dominion Museum Records in ethnology ; vol. 1 (1948) p. 114-20.

Phillipps, W. J. Moko or Māori tattoo, in, Te ao hou ; (1954) p. 27-28.

Robley, Horatio Gordon. List of mataora patterns of moko, in, Journal of the Polynesian Society ; vol. 40 (1931) p. 44-46.

Robley, Horatio Gordon. Moko, or Māori tattooing, London : Chapman and Hall, 1896. (reprinted 1998)

Rua, Mohi R. Moko : Māori facial tattoos : the experiences of contemporary wearers. (Thesis?) University of Waikato, 2003.

Sangl, Harry. The blue privilege : the last tattooed Māori women : te kuia moko. W. Collins, 1980.

Te Awekotuku, Ngahuia. He maimai aroha : a disgusting traffic for collectors : the colonial trade in preserved human heads in Aotearoa, New Zealand, in, Obsession, compulsion, collection : on objects, display culture and interpretation, edited by A. Kiendl. Banff, Alberta : The Banff Centre Press, 2004 p. 77-91.

Te Awekotuku, Ngahuia. Mata ora : chiselling the living face : dimensions of Māori tattoo, in, Sensible objects : colonialism, museums and material culture, edited by Elizabeith Edwards, Chris Gosden and Ruth B. Phillips. Oxford, New York : Berg, 2006 p. 121-140.

Te Awekotuku, Ngahuia. Mau moko : the world of Māori tattoo, with Linda Waimarie Nikora, Mohi Rua and Rolinda Karapu. North Shore : Penguin Viking, 2007.

Te Awekotuku, Ngahuia. More than skin deep : tā moko today, in, Claiming the stones/naming the bones : cultural property and the negotiation of national and ethnic identity, edited by Elazar Barkan and Ronald Bush. Los Angeles : Getty Press, 2002 p. 243-58.

Te Awekotuku, Ngahuia. Tā moko : Māori tattoo, Goldie, edited by Roger Blakely and David Bateman. Auckland : David Bateman, 1997 p. 109-14.

25 years on : demand is still strong for remarkable record of kuia moko, in, Kokiri paetae, May 1997 p. 17.

Te Rangikaheke, Wiremu. Māori manuscripts : description of the ceremonies observed on the occasion of tattooing a chief and the method of performing the operation. Grey Collection. (1854). GMSS89. Auckland Public Library.

Thomas, Nicholas, Anna Cole and Bronwen Douglas. Tattoo : bodies, art, and exchange in the Pacific and the West, . London : Reaktion, 2005.

Zambucka, Kristin. Faces from the past : the dignity of Māori age, Wellington : Reed, 1971.

WEB-SITE links

Moko search from the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre.

The Maori - Tattoo.
Brought to us by NZ in history, this is a brief introduction

Documentary - Ta Moko (Traditional Maori Tattoo).
This half hour documentary explores the art of Ta Moko (traditional Maori tattoo).

Korero o te Wa I Raraunga I Rauemi I Te Whanganui a Tara I Whakapapa