Maori Response to Gothic Architecture

¶ … Maori Response to Gothic Architecture" - summary

Deidre Brown's journal article "The Maori Response to Gothic Architecture" deals with a series of ideas meant to explain how Maori tribes adapted to change provoked by Western influences pervading their culture and to how their architecture came to be shaped by Gothic elements. The Maori apparently expressed interest in Western ideas ever since their early interactions with the Church Missionary Society. Maori leaders actually supported the CMS in installing their programs in New Zealand and in being able to promote their thinking to Maori tribes.

While the Maori accepted a series of Western influences, they did not hesitate to get involved in the affairs of the CMS in order to emphasize the importance of their cultural values. "Many Evangelical CMS missionaries did not try to prevent their Maori congregations from decorating the interior of their churches with customary kowhaiwhai rafter paintings and tukutuku wall panels." (Brown 254) Brown thus makes it possible for her readers to understand that even though the Maori supported the inclusion of Western elements into their culture, they did not abandon their traditions and actually focused on introducing many of their ideas into these respective elements.

Christian churches did not only provide the Maori with the opportunity to integrate their ideas into Christian involvement in their culture, as they also enabled the community to realize that it could change much of its architectural customs in order to make buildings more comfortable. Maori houses had been simplistic until that time and it was actually difficult for these people to stand upright in most parts of their homes. CMS churches provided Maori builders with the opportunity to learn new and more effective building strategies.

The fact that Maori tribes often expressed their competitiveness through progress they experienced in a series of domains enabled them to focus on building better churches and buildings in general. Rival Maori tribes considered that simply building Christian churches was not enough for them to emphasize their superiority. As a consequence, they got actively involved in designing buildings that would reflect their thinking and traditions.

The Rangiatea and Waikanae churches are interesting examples of Christian churches built by the Maori. The fact that they have a great deal of elements that are uncharacteristic to Maori architecture and that they do not have ancestral wood carvings demonstrates that the Maori had been involved in building structures that were in disagreement with their traditional values in order to emphasize their prominence.

The absence of ancestral wood carvings in many Maori built structures during the early years of Gothic architecture being present in the territory can be owed to a series of factors. In some cases missionaries did not approve of such elements in their churches and in other cases Maori builders had trouble coming up with designs that would be in agreement with Christian themes.

While ancestral wood carvings were not present in many Maori-built structures, builders were unhesitant about introducing kowhaiwhai patterns. These patterns are in many cases important because of how they can be used to depict Maori history. The Maori thus concentrated on building impressive structures that could, in addition to promoting Christian belief, provide future generations with the opportunity to learn more about Maori background. Rangiatea has a clear Gothic exterior design, but its interior reveals the intervention of Maori influences through a series of decorations. The building's designers were, however, careful about maintaining the building's general character by introducing discrete decorations in order for the structure to put across a feeling of continuity.

Maori carvers were well-acquainted with the fact that Anglican priests would be hesitant about supporting carvings that portrayed ancestral elements. As a result, they went through great efforts in order to be as subtle as they possibly could with the purpose of introducing their carvings into churches without members of the church realizing it. The church's laws were directly contradicted as a consequence of idol-like figures being present in Maori-built churches. The fact that many influential religious persons in the territory objected with regard to these elements meant that Maori carvers needed to change their style in order to be able to create links between Christian churches and their cultural background. By introducing abstract sequences, these people practically made it difficult and almost impossible for Christian leaders to consider that they needed to get involved in altering these concepts.

The coming of George Augustus Selwyn in New Zealand had a strong effect on attitudes that the church would express with regard to the presence of Maori elements in churches. A power struggle within Christianity between Selwyn and Evangelical missionaries influenced natives to believe that their guests were not necessarily as connected with God as they claimed to be. As natives became more and more detached from Christian influential individuals they started to concentrate on adopting Gothic influences in designing diverse buildings.

Builders who were mainly interested in creating structures that would be in agreement with Maori traditions thus created a series of buildings that were not necessarily meant to provide people with a place for worship. Instead, these buildings were meant to praise Maori cultural values and to provide Maori tribes and their leaders with a location where they could discuss important ideas and strategies they needed to employ in order to succeed in endeavors that they were concerned about. These meeting houses held a great deal of carved elements, and, even though they contained Gothic elements, they were largely meant to emphasize the fact that the Maori were greatly concerned about maintaining most of the principles that had been influential in their history until their first interactions with Christians.

While the presence of Gothic elements in Maori architecture was initially meant to portray the connection between Maori cultural elements and Christianity, Gothic architecture in New Zealand gradually came to be very different from how it was in typical Christian-dominated territories. Maori tribes took their attention away from trying to unite Christianity with Maori tradition and practically took advantage of the fact that they learnt a great deal of architectural information as a result of their relationship with Christians. This enabled them to design unique and intriguing buildings meant to fit a series of purposes. Meeting houses built throughout the late nineteenth century are impressive examples of how Maori tribes adopted Gothic elements with the intention of creating works that would fit their needs.

It was not necessarily that the Maori did not appreciate the Christian idea of God, as they actually appreciated Christian tradition and information in the Bible. Even with this, they came to consider that Anglican, Evangelical, and Catholic missionaries were inclined to introduce their personal feelings in putting across the word of God. As a consequence, they decided that it was in their best interest to assimilate Gothic architectural elements into their culture and to keep a series of ideas concerning God while focusing on preserving their cultural values.