The Legend of the Voyage to New Zealand

In the late 19th century, there was growing ethnographic interest in the origin of the Māori population in New Zealand, with the dominant theory being advanced by Stephenson Percy Smith, this being the existence of a 'Grand Fleet' of seven canoes that arrived in about 1350 from Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands. Smith argued that this Grand Fleet followed the supposed discovery of New Zealand by the Polynesian explorer Kupe, sailing from Hawaiki, the traditional supposed homeland of Polynesians, in about 750, and its rediscovery in the 9th century by Toi and Whatonga; the latter allegedly found the country was inhabited by the Moriori people, a primitive race of Polynesians, which were wiped out by those people of the Grand Fleet.^[1][2]

The perception in New Zealand in the late 1800s was that the Māori population was dying out as a result of contact with superior western civilisation. The concept of the 'Grand Fleet', which resulted in the demise of the Moriori, tied into this view and in the settlers' minds justified the colonisation of New Zealand by Europeans and the decline of the Māori people.^[1][2] It was against this backdrop that Sir George Grey, a former Premier of New Zealand who had an interest in the culture of indigenous peoples, urged artists to record aspects of the Māori people with a view to preserving them for posterity.^[3][4]

Kennett Watkins was an English artist, born in 1847, who had emigrated to New Zealand in 1874 and subsequently became the headmaster of the Auckland Free School of Arts. He executed historical paintings of landscapes and events, particularly those involving the Māori people, and by the 1880s had established a reputation for works of this nature and was a pioneer in the visual depiction of New Zealand history.^[5][6][7] Watkins was keenly interested in Smith's theory of a Grand Fleet, writing and lecturing on the topic and in 1906, he produced the oil painting Departure of the Six Canoes from Raratonga for New Zealand, AD1350, a large work of 1075 mm by 2140 mm (42.3 in by 84.2 in). This was followed six years later by the more ambitious work, The Legend of the Voyage to New Zealand.^[3][8]

The Legend of the Voyage to New Zealand was painted with oils on a canvas measuring 1321 mm by 2667 mm (52.0 in by 105.0 in) and depicts several twin-hulled canoe making landfall in New Zealand on a bright, summer morning. The setting is a calm inlet with a backdrop of green hills, obscured by clouds of mist. In the foreground is the shoreline, with a pōhutukawa tree in the right hand corner of the painting.^[9][10]

In his work, Watkins alludes to an event which has its basis in a tradition concerning two of the migration canoes, Tainui and Arawa, that set out for New Zealand from Hawaiki. At the time of their arrival at Whangaparāoa, near Cape Runaway, in summer, the pōhutukawa tree with its distinct, bright red flowers, was in bloom. Believing the flowers to be birds, many of the Māori voyagers, including their chief Tauninihi, discarded their red feathered headwear, or kura, which was sourced from the birds of Hawaiki. They were disappointed when they realised their mistake.^[10][11]

Some artistic licence was taken with the features of the depicted canoes and as early as the 1920s, it was recognised that certain details were inaccurate.^[12] For example, ethnographer Elsdon Best, writing in 1925, commented that rigging details were inconsistent with the period of the canoe shown in the painting.^[13] In the defence of Watkins, at the time there was limited knowledge of the configuration and construction of the canoes in which Māori first arrived in New Zealand. It has also been conceded that contemporary artists depicting aspects of Māori culture often made similar errors of ethnology.^[14]