Kuia Mau Moko: Photographs by Marti Friedlander

In the late 60’s and early 70’s Marti Friedlander photographed Maaori kuia who bore the indelible legacy of moko kauae - the tradition of incising and embedding pigment into the skin on the chin of Maaori women. At the time it was believed the sun was setting on the ancient tradition.

The kuia are photographed in their natural environment - in their homes, their garden or on their marae - and each has a story of resilience, loss and of sorrow for a way of life that was fast slipping away to become a distant memory.

Not one of them realised that within two decades moko kauae would begin a quiet revival that would eventually see hundreds of Maaori women proudly bearing the moko of their ancestors and reconnecting the past with the future once again.

Image: Detail, Marti Friedlander, Herepo Rongo, from the series ‘The Moko Suite’, about 1971, gelatin silver print. Gift of The Gerrard and Marti Friedlander Charitable Trust, 2009. Te Papa (O.033713)