Lot 186 Dα

John M. Patrick, a Scottish seaman aboard the Glenora, made several trips to Australia and New Zealand. He settled in New Zealand in 1875 and is believed to have collected the prow after that date. A number of items from his collection found their way to Tyrrell's Museum in Castlereagh Street, Sydney probably in the 1930s, including the present lot. The prow was later acquired by Colin and Josephine Black of Mount Gambier, South Australia. Their museum was sold after Colin's death in 1988.

Cf. Best, E., The Maori Canoe, Dominion Museum Bulletin no.7, Wellington, 1925, p.120, figs.79 and 80 for similar canoe prows from waka tete canoes. According to Elsdon Best waka tete were used for sea-fishing, traffic and for warlike expeditions. Tete is the name of the plain armless figureheads on these canoes.