Context (Field collection)
Purchased by Rachel Hand (Collections Manager for Anthropology.
Issue Date: 02.10.2019. Designed by Saint Andrew Matautia, New Zealand Post, Wellington, New Zealand. Printer: Southern Colour Print, Dunedin, New Zealand. Process: Offset Lithography. Size: 30mm x 48mm (vertical). Values: $1.30 x 2, $2.60, $3.30, $4.00

Tuffery’s paintings explore the roles played by Tupaia, his arioi acolyte and nephew Taiato, and members of Cook’s crew whose legacies have received little attention. The history of Tupaia and these first encounters between Europeans and Māori are included in this presentation pack, written by University of Auckland Senior Research Fellow Dr. Billie Lythberg.

"Michel Tuffery’s Artistic Journey of Discovery
Ngā kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea- Seeds sown from Rangiātea
This series of artworks has been honoured as a set of 5 stamps to commemorate Tuia 250.
When Tupaia, an arioi priest and navigator from Ra‘iātea, guided Lieutenant James Cook and the Endeavour from Tahiti to Aotearoa in 1769, a reconnection was made between Māori and their ancestral homelands. As featured on these stamps, New Zealand artist Michel Tuffery has created original artworks in response to his discoveries about where his personal history meets that of these first encounters.

The messenger from Raiatea to Uawa
Elegant kōtuku (Ardea modesta), uncommon in Aotearoa, appeared while Tuffery was drawing at Taputapu‘atea marae in Ra‘iātea and again in Ūawa. Here, the white heron is a messenger of connection looking towards Opoutama, the site of significant exchanges between Tupaia and Ūawa tangata whenua, also known as ‘Tupaia’s Cave’. The painting’s carved framework depicts the mouth of the poupou of Hinematioro, a wall panel from a wharenui being built on Pourewa Island at the time of the Endeavour’s visit for a young chieftain from one of Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti’s most senior lines. Possibly presented to Tupaia, the poupou of Hinematioro is now in Tübingen, Germany, and is visited by Hauiti descendants on journeys of reconnection.

Te Maro and Solander, two intellectuals from opposite sides of the world, 1769
Te Maro of Ngāti Rakai (later Ngāti Oneone) and Te Aitanga a Hauiti was a learned man, trained in the whare wānanga (house of learning) Puhi Kai Iti, an expert in reading nature and a master producer of cultivated foods for his people. Daniel Solander was a Linnaean disciple, commited to cataloguing the natural world. What cross-pollination of knowledge was thwarted when Te Maro was shot during the first meeting of Māori and British, at the Tūranganui River. A descendant of Te Maro, Nick Tupara, is depicted here: the living face of this tipuna and a reminder of the legacy of this tragic first meeting.

Taiato and young Nick, the adventurers arrival in Aotearoa, 1769
When Nicholas Young sighted land from the Endeavour’s masthead on 6 October 1769, earning a gallon of rum, Cook added ‘Young Nick’s Head’ to the headland Te Kurī a Pāoa, named for the dog of the captain of the Horouta waka. Taiato, the nephew of Tupaia and an arioi acolyte, appears as he was drawn by Parkinson in a tiputa poncho and playing a vivo noseflute. These 12-year-old boys from different sides of the world were on a shared, often perilous adventure. When the Endeavour reached Batavia (Jakarta), after a short and exciting exploration of this cosmopolitan city, Taiato sickened and died. Tupaia was inconsolable, and died shortly after.

Parkinsons Kākābeak (Clianthus Puniceus) 1769 at Uawa outside Tupaia’s Cave
White blossoms of Tahitian tiare maori (Gardenia taitensis) join the vibrant red ngutukākā/kākābeak (Clianthus puniceus) of Aotearoa in this portrait of natural history artist Sydney Parkinson, which celebrates his relationship with Tupaia. Male members of the Tahitian religious society known as arioi, to which Tupaia belonged, were often skilled in dyeing and decorating barkcloth. An artistic exchange occurred when Tupaia was instructed in the use of watercolours, producing significant paintings, and Parkinson learned the names of Tahitian dyes and dye-making plants. In the background, waka are pulled up at Opoutama, in Ūawa, where Tupaia left charcoal cave drawings and Tahitian text still visible today.

Cookie in Te Wai Pounamu meets Cook Strait
Despite the importance of Tupaia to Cook’s first voyage, as navigator, interpreter, artist and a man of high rank who commanded respect where ‘Kuki’ and his crew could not, no portrait survives of him. Here we see Tupaia as migratory tuna fish, bound into Cook’s hair, guiding the voyage and translating between people long separated yet always connected—seeds sown from Ra‘iātea. A hei tiki pendant given to Tupaia and now in the Royal Collection (UK) peeks from Cook’s collar; his shoulders are draped in the star navigator’s fine taaniko-bordered cloak, now in the Pitt Rivers Museum (UK); and British barks face Māori waka in the background of Tōtaranui/Queen Charlotte Sound."

Details taken from Michel Tuffery’s Artistic Journey of Discovery, https://micheltuffery.co.nz/shop-2/paintings-for-sale/ accessed 10/8/2020
Event Date 16/10/2019
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
The first day cover features a drawing of the Endeavour, one of a series of sketches drawn by Michel Tuffery over his time traveling and researching the history of this ship’s journey to Aotearoa New Zealand.
It includes a set of five stamps:
$1.30 "Taiato and Young Nick, the adventurers arrive in Aotearoa, 1769";
$2.60 "Te Maro and Solander, two intellectuals from opposite sides of the world, 1769";
$3.30 "Parkinson at Opoutama, 1769";
$4.00 "Not another Kuki story"
Event Date 16/12/2019
Author: rachel hand

Context (Amendments / updates)
.1 Presentation pack, NZ post TUIA 250 Michel Tuffery's Artistic Journey of Discovery
.2 TUIA 250 Michel Tuffery's Artistic Journey of Discovery, NZ Post official first day cover with examples of all five stamps
.3-7 detachable stamps
.8 miniature sheet with examples of all five stamps

Event Date 11/8/2020
Author: Katrina Dring

Context (Display)
Exhibited in the Encounters case
Event Date 9/2020
Author: rachel hand