Thank you Lisa! From the 2012 'Maori Rock Art' issue comes this selection from the South Island (Te Waipounamu), with more than 500 recorded sites to choose from, NZ Post + the Ngai Tahu Maori Rock Art Trust selected 6 different images. What was the basis for their selection? The most visually striking and well preserved? The least abstract? Painted on the bank of the Waitaki River, this pictograph is thought to show a kiwi chick in an egg.
Tiki Figure
The Pouakai 'birdman' theme is common, but less common are the secondary birds on the wings, from Pareora this is 1 of only 2 recorded images. At right is the now adopted icon for the Ngai Tahu Maori Rock Art Trust, this seated tiki dominates the ceiling of a limestone rock shelter in Maerewhenua at 1m in length. Which came first, this stamp, or the Trust's logo?
It is hard to get a sense of scale for these, but this pictograph is 4m across on the ceiling from a rock shelter in proximity to the Opihi River. It shows 2 entwined Taniwha, often malevolent, they are associated with water and caves (seen singularly on the 1960 stamp).
Gotta love the action shots! Likely depicting people travelling by mokihi, the bullrush watercraft.
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