The Moko Texts Collection

This corpus collects together Horatio Gordon Robley's Moko; or Maori Tattooing and contextual material relating to Ta Moko, mokamokai, Robley himself and his art. A bibliography provides further links to other online resources.

A paper discusses the motivation for the project and consultation undertaken. Images of mokamokai in the corpus have been suppressed. The NZETC policy is here.

The edition of Moko; or Maori Tattooing that was digitised is Horace Edward Manners Fildes’ annotated copy which was of particular interest for a number of reasons: it contains a number of ‘letters’ from Robley to Fildes about the text and its content; it includes a hand-painted water-colour of a mokamokai by Robley; and for some of the images of people or mokamokai within the text where the caption gave no indication of who the people were within them, Fildes has provided a name.

Additional contextual resources, including Robley's memoirs, will be added to the corpus in the future.

• ‘A Curious Document’: Ta Moko as Evidence of Pre-European Textual Culture in New Zealand
  • by Sarah K. J. Gallagher
• Robley — Soldier with a Pencil
  • by L. W. Melvin
• Mokomokai: Commercialization and Desacralization
  • by Christian Palmer
  • Mervyn L. Tano
• Moko; or Maori Tattooing
  • by Horatio Gordon Robley
• Mokomokai: Preserving the Past
• Sir George Grey N.Z. Maori MS. 89
  • by Wiremu Maihi Te Rangikāheke
• Smoked Heads
  • by Christina Thompson
• Robley: Te Ropere, 1840—1930
  • by Timothy Walker
• A Bibliography of Online Resources for the "Moko; or Maori Tattooing" Project
  • by Samantha Callaghan
• "Moko; or Maori Tattooing" Project: A Report on Consultation
  • by Samantha Callaghan
  • Alison Stevenson
• Policy Regarding Display of Images of Mokamokai
  • by New Zealand Electronic Text Collection