Tradition and change in Māori and Pacific art : essays / by Roger Neich : edited by Chanel Clarke, Fuli Pereira and Nigel Prickett.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. A prehistoric stone bird from Bouganville and its relationship to Northern Solomons implements -- 2. Basketwork fertility figures from the Western Enga and nearby groups, Western and Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea -- 3. Some early Māori woodcarvings from Ruatahuna, Urewera District, New Zealand -- 4. A survey of visitor attitudes to a Māori art exhibition -- 5. A semiological analysis of self decoration in Mount Hagen, New Guinea -- 6. The complementarity of history and art in Tutamure Meeting House, Omarumutu Marae, Opotiki -- 7. Processes of change in Samoan arts and crafts -- 8. Samoan figurative carving and Samoan canoes -- 9. Interpretation and presentation of Māori culture -- 10. Māori figurative painting: tradition and innovation in the search for identity -- 11. Jacob William Heberley of Wellington: a Māori carver in a changed world -- 12. Samoan figurative carvings and Taumualua canoes - a further note -- 13. Carved entrances of Māori semi-subterranean storehouses -- 14. The emergence of the individual in Māori woodcarving: Toward a Māori art history -- 15. From the canoe to church on late nineteenth-certury Ulawa, Solomon Islands -- 16. The gateway of maketu: Treasures of Ngāti Pikiao carving style -- 17. Papahou and Wakahuia: Māori treasure boxes -- 18. Powaka Whakairo: a third form of Māori treasure box.

Roger Neich (1944-2010) was an outstanding New Zealand scholar, whose study of Maori and Pacific arts is celebrated in the eighteen essays contained within Tradition and Change in Maori and Pacific Art. The collection of essays span Roger Neich's career - from a 1971 article on a Bougainville ancient stone bird carving to a 2005 study on the powaka whakairo form of Maori treasure box. At the heart of the collection stand his studies of Maori art, focusing on wood-carving and figurative painting. Tradition and Change in Maori and Pacific Art acknowledges the contribution Roger Neich made, not only to research and scholarship but to the way the public came to see Maori and Pacific art in new ways. The book will be invaluable to students in anthropology, art history, and Maori and Pacific studies and welcomed by readers in New Zealand who are familiar with Neich's work. International scholars, museums and collectors will also find this a significant resource for their research archives.