Collections Online hosts over a million items from Te Papa’s collection, each with its own unique story. As part of an internship exploring how blackfoot pāua are represented in Te Papa, Sara Joyce Macdonald highlights a few collection items showing the varied uses of pāua and the importance of this unique taonga to Aotearoa New Zealand.
Blackfoot pāua (Haliotis iris) – the species that is most commonly used for its iridescent shell and meat – is an intrinsic part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s culture, with broad uses as part of taonga, such as in matau lures used to attract kahawai in shallow waters, and as whetū eyes attached with sap to wooden carved figures looking up to the sky.
Additionally, pāua remains a staple kaimoana that generations of families dive for. Pāua play a vital role in the ecology of Aotearoa New Zealand’s waters.
Over centuries, pāua have been, and continue to be, a valuable resource. Today, it has become such a cultural keystone, that it is practically a given to see it adorning souvenirs stores and jewellery displays across the motu.
As part of my work as an intern at Te Papa, I was curious to see how pāua was displayed within the museum space, given that it holds such a profound place within Aotearoa. I found it represented in a wide variety of collection areas, in ways that show the mana of pāua, and the changes in its use over time.
In the 20th century, the use of pāua continued to be incorporated into growing aspects of Aotearoa culture; from soldiers in Gallipoli to film studios, jewellery artists to surfboard makers. Below, I have chosen three groups of items on Collections Online that highlight how unique and important pāua is to the story of Aotearoa, in ways that can be surprising.
The story of soldiers
Pāua as a rehabilitation tool for injured servicemen, was a connection that I was not aware of until I saw it mentioned, in-passing, on a review about an exhibition.
Particularly in Wellington, pāua was seen as a crafting resource for soldiers use to make money. On Farish Street, which is now a section of Victoria Street, there was a shop specifically selling these goods.
On Matiu Somes Island, German and Austro-Hungarian interned political prisoners designed jewellery and other items, such as the jewellery box below, throughout WWI and WWII.
Pāua was a significant resource for many soldiers returning from war or interned here, placing value in jewellery making as a skill and pāua as a prized component.
During the World Wars, pāua was also used by soldiers and their families to connect them to home. Here is an identity disc belonging to Taranaki soldier Corporal Morris Connington Brown who was killed at Gallipoli. It was personalised to add a cross made of pāua after it was sent back to the family.
Other items, such as this brooch from WWII, show other ways that pāua could be used to create an Aotearoa connection for soldiers. While there is little stated about this brooch, its design is similar to the Royal Air Force (UK) wings that were made into “sweetheart brooches” and given to significant others by soldiers overseas.
Jewellery exhibitions
The 1981 Auckland Fingers Gallery exhibition Paua Dreams is widely attributed as being one of the first art gallery exhibitions that brought Aotearoa’s natural resources and contemporary jewellery to the forefront. Pāua has become the focus of several exciting and engaging exhibitions all over the country since then. These exhibitions created a space for pāua to transcend into Aotearoa modern jewellery, utilising our natural resources as valuable works of art.
Below is a necklace by Warwick Freeman, one of the founders of Fingers Gallery, whose work was on display during Paua Dreams. Following Paua Dreams, the 1988 travelling exhibition Bone Stone Shell brought incredible pāua jewellery to the international stage – including this necklace. This further created space for Aotearoa artists to utilise pāua to connect modern art with the land and sea. Pieces from this exhibition were again displayed at Te Papa in 2013.
Below is an incredible piece of jewellery, Flight of Birdsrings by Jenny Pattrick. It has a sister piece located in the Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt which was shown at their exhibition Pāua, A Contemporary Jewellery Story in 2022. This exhibition displayed jewellery from several museum collections, including Te Papa. Pattrick designed this ring to highlight the beauty of pāua, utilising its natural curve to replicate movements of a bird.
Pāua to the people: Aotearoa in popular culture
Pāua can be in unexpected places, for example, used as embellishment on the sword of the famed Xena: Warrior Princess outfit in the collection. Pāua can be used to showcase the beautiful natural resources we have and utilise them to instill a sense of Aotearoa culture in film-making for the international stage.
These original props combine the legacy of Xena with that of pāua. In the Xena fanbase, weapon replicas are generally considered to be more valuable with pāua inlay on them, as they are attributed to the authenticity of the props, even though the show takes place in Greece. These pieces are indicative of the strong film industry here, and how Aotearoa will always be associated with talented special effects and prop-making in the film industry.
Pāua even became a popular cultural attraction on its own with the famed Pāua House in Bluff, a house adorned with 1100 shells and a tourist attraction for 37 years before moving to its current home in Canterbury Museum.
Brian O’Connor’s utilisation of pāua on his 2001 surfboard is another example of uplifting everyday objects and making them into art that puts the beauty of Aotearoa’s natural world at the forefront. As O’Connor stated: “It’s an uncomfortable feeling knowing you’re sitting on a big fishing lure, but it’s an amazing experience to see the sun reflecting off the pāua in the water.”
The beauty of pāua
Highlighting these varied collection pieces showcases how intrinsic pāua is not only as an extremely important animal in the whakapapa of our oceans, but also as a tool of business and family connection during the wars, as modern art, as a symbol in popular culture, and is a keystone of Aotearoa culture. Pāua is a taonga that can be used to bring people together, showcase talents, and represent stories.
Pāua is so much more than a simple mollusc. After centuries of use in varied and important ways, it goes far beyond just being a beautiful shell and animal: it is integral to our oceans and people.
