Maori Exhibit Blends Traditional, Modern : Roots: Museum of Man show successfully fuses centuries-old forms with modern sensibilities, showing great craftsmanship and skill throughout.

Two poems at the entrance to “Te Waka Toi: Contemporary Maori Art of New Zealand” serve as an introduction to the exhibition. It is an entirely fitting beginning to this handsome show at the Museum of Man because, as one soon learns, all forms of art play a major role in Maori culture.

The Maori are native people of New Zealand whose ancestors are thought to have migrated from other Polynesian areas sometime between 1200 and 1400 AD. Because they were a navigating people, the “waka” or canoe is a central theme in their culture. “Te Waka Toi,” which is also the name of the Maori Arts Council, means “carrier of the arts.”

This a fairly small exhibition, featuring about 50 works by 26 artists. But it contains a magnificent array of art. The traditional and contemporary weavings and wood carvings as well as paintings, drawings and pottery, convey the sense that these artists belong to the cream of the crop. How else can one explain the successful fusing of centuries-old traditions with modern sensibilities and the great craftsmanship and skill throughout?

One of the more traditional works in the exhibition is a wooden sculpture by Lyonel Grant titled “Te Ure O Te Ngarie.” (Grant also carved the “waka” that, on several occasions, has led the America’s Cup New Zealand team out of the San Diego harbor.) Meant to be part of a fence, this rectangular godlike figure with incised tattoos on face and body serves as a form of tribal identification and gives the people spiritual guidance and protection. It also reveals the Maori love of earth because the label informs us that the title means it is a progeny of the forest.

Another traditional piece is a “muka” (flax fiber) cape onto which the artist Rangimarie Hetet has woven pheasant and weka feathers. The piece is simple and elegant, and its border design illustrates a Maori pattern.

The meanings behind most of the works in the show are enigmatic to those of us unschooled in Maori culture, but these two pieces supply a simple blueprint for the rest of the work in the show because the patterns and symbolism in both can be found in most of the other art. Sometimes the reference is obvious, such as in Sandy Adsett’s acrylic painting of a traditional weave pattern, but, even when it’s obscure, a simple fact is that all Maori art is based on religion, mythology, ancestral craft methods, respect for the earth and love of their tribes.

Contemporary traditional works that incorporate innovative variations include Riki Manuel’s series of six Moko masks (moko translates into tattoo), which depict several types of Maori tattoo design. The upper left mask of ornate curved lines blended in with vertical lines was recorded by one of Captain Cook’s illustrators in the late 18th Century.

To most of us, all of the intricate designs would appear to be ancestral, but according to the artist the two lower left masks incorporate new twists. The left one uses a design normally found in wood carvings, and the centerpiece is placed on the side of the face and is not dyed.

Innovative approaches are also found in some of the weavings. Erenora Puketapu Hetet created two wonderful capes that are both unusual and quite magnificent. One is made entirely of multi-colored bird feathers. The other is from dyed corn husks.

Among the strongest works in the exhibition are the contemporary paintings and sculptures. Their symbolic imagery may not always be decipherable, but the artists’ command of 20th-Century techniques cannot be denied.

Robyn Kahukiwa’s “Gods Never Die, Only People” is a large expressionistic painting made up of several panels. The upper panels depict gods very similar to Grant’s wooden sculpture. The figures in both works have three fingers, similar to the three-fingered manaia, a bird man found in most carvings.

To the Maori, the fingers represent birth, life, and death, and these strong characters are painted in bright yellow, purple, blue and red, whereas the panels below have a reddish brown tone. The more somber colors and the fact that the people below are prone insinuate that they, unlike the gods, are part of the earth.

Buck Nin’s painting “Fragmented Society” depicts a mountain silhouette across which there is a bold decorative band that incorporates weave patterns and other symbolic elements such as the manaia design. This is also a strong reference to the spirit within the land.

And, Darcy Nicholas’ boldly colored painting “From Taranaki to Tawhitinui” (Taranaki and Tawhitinui are the artist’s ancestral mountains) is filled with imagery, ranging from depictions of early Maori rock drawings to references of the primeval parents, Papatuanuku (Mother Earth) and Ranginui (Father Sky).

More enigmatic are Robert Jahnke’s two sculptures made from wood, lead and steel, with shapes based on traditional Maori hair combs. In fact, the works are intended to address something very political: On the adjacent label Jahnke explained, “The shadow of the land has been taken by the queen, while the substance remains with the Maori.”

“Te Waka Toi” is a wonderful exhibition that serves not only as an introduction to a little-known culture but also reveals how tradition can be maintained during these ever changing times.

* “Te Waka Toi” is at the Museum of Man in Balboa Park through May25. Museum hours are 10 a.m.- 4p.m. daily. Throughout the exhibition artists giv e lectures and demonstrations. Call the museum at 239-2001 for more information.