The letters “Kotu Whaka Iriora” inscribed on this figure’s chest identify him by name as the artist’s famous ancestor Tüwhakairiora—referred to as “the wind-compelling cormorant of Te Ataakura (his mother) and the solitary one of Ngatihau (his father)." In 1911 Reverend Mohi Turei published a dramatic account of chief Tüwhakairiora’s revenge in the sixteenth century for the death of his grandfather, after which Tüwhakairiora went on to be a leader of all the people of the northern East Coast of North Island, New Zealand.

Here he is depicted in a war dance posture (haka). Abalone shell (pāua) eyes and strips of hair have been added to the carving, and his full-face tattoo (rangi paruhi) is rendered with incised lines. This type of marking, worn by men, a powerful representation of the wearer’s identity and place in his community, was created by cutting or carving away the skin with greenstone chisels rather than by inserting dye under its surface.

This figure is one of the founding works in the de Young’s holdings, its description recorded by hand in a master ledger listing collection objects in 1895. It was registered just a few days before the official opening of the museum as “Idol of carved wood, New Zealand.” As a tekoteko figure, or gable image, representing Tüwhakairiora, it was once situated in a place of honor at the top of a Māori meeting house in New Zealand.Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young 125 (California: Cameron + Company, 2021), p. 266, entry by Christina Hellmich.