IT was more than 150 years ago that the Maori warrior crouched over a piece of red pine with his axe, crafting the canoe that would take his tribe to war.
After shaping the hull, he turned his attention to the elaborate carvings which appealed to the Gods to bless the vessel, making sacred an object which was intended to help its crew take human life.
Little could he have known that in 2008, another
Maori artist would be resuming work on his masterpiece so that it could be shown off to admirers in a far distant city.
The war canoe, or waka taua, is being prepared for a new gallery of Pacific artefacts due to open at the Royal Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street in 2011.
Artist George Nuku, based in Auckland, has travelled to Edinburgh to help the restoration project.
The vessel's stern post, or taurapa, is missing, so Mr Naku, 44, has been commissioned to create a replacement carved from transparent acrylic, adding his own artistic ideas to the traditional design.
He said: "A war canoe embodies the power of the community and talks about the relationship that the community has with their ancestors and forces of nature.
"The fact that it's carved from a log ties it with the realm of the forest.
"When it's completed, it's embellished with abalone, coral and feathers, which brings it alive, brings the realms of birds and plants and fish and people together."
He added: "The beauty of transparent acrylic is that it doesn't overpower what's there. It almost embodies the spirit of what you're making and doesn't detract from the artefact."
Mr Naku is a walking work of art himself, sporting tattoos on his head which tell the story of his own ancestral heritage.
He said: "They're like the skin equivalent of what's on the wood." He is one of a team from the Museum who are working on the canoe, including conservators Charles Stable and Sarah Gerrish.
Ms Gerrish said the project was particularly interesting for a team which usually concentrates on restoring an object to be exactly at it was.
"We have our own code of ethics within our profession which dictates the way to behave with objects," he said, "and it's very much focussed on restoration.
"It's a real challenge to work this way. It's quite groundbreaking."
Little is known about the canoe's history, except that it was in the collection of the Edinburgh University in 1850, so curator Chantal Knowles will spend the next few years researching its background.
She met Mr Naku in 2005 when viewing an example of his acrylic sculpture in Cambridge, and said she instantly thought of the canoe. She added: "I'd just had a look at the Maori canoe and thought 'It's in such a state of disrepair there are too many unknowns, but it's very early, very significant and we can't just ignore it'.
"Seeing George's work sold the idea that this could provide us with an opportunity to do something innovative."
The full article contains 513 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
