Plaster replica of a cast taken from the living face of Māori chief Taupua Te Whanoa of Ngāti Whakaue, an iwi (tribe), of the Te Arawa confederation, painted to show tattooing, Rotorua, New Zealand, 1851

This life mask represents Taupua Te Whanoa, chief and tohunga whakairo (master carver) of the Ngāti Whakaue iwi (tribe) of the Rotorua region of New Zealand. Taupua lived in Ohinemutu and was the eldest son of Te Whanoa and the grandson of Pukaki. In late December 1849, he met with British colonial administrator Sir George Grey, then Governor of New Zealand, at Te Ngae (Bay of Plenty) where he agreed to have an impression made of his face.

Cast in plaster and painted to show the detail of Taupua’s tattooed skin, this is a copy of the original life mask, which was donated to the British Museum by Sir George Grey.

Multiple replicas were circulated by Major General Horatio Gordon Robley, who dealt and traded in Māori human remains and artefacts, including mokomokai – the preserved heads of Māori people with moko facial tattoos. First introduced to British collections in the 1700s, when Europeans began the process of colonisation in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the heads became valuable trade items during the Musket Wars of the following century. Copies of Taupua Te Whanoa’s life mask also exist in the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, New Zealand.