A CLASSIC MAORI CARVING
These realistic faces, placed on stylised bodies, belong to the Fox Pataka, in the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Pokaha Haranui, the builder of the pataka which dates from about 1860, was the younger brother of Waata Haranui who built the wellknown Arawa meeting house Rangatiki (Whakarewarewa). Pohika wanted to do something to establish his mana, he could not build a larger house, therefore constructed the outsize pataka now in the museum.