Introducing Kauri Gum

Kauri gum, or Kapia as it was known to the Maori, is a special taonga or treasure found only in New Zealand. It is resin (not sap) from the giant Kauri tree, a tree that can live for over 2000 years. Kauri’s longevity, together with its tendency to “bleed” resin for long periods when damaged, has resulted in lumps weighing over 250 kg - making it the one true colossus amongst the world’s resins.

People familiar with resins might know kauri gum better as young Hu Po (tears of the dying tiger in Chinese), jung bernstein (young amber in German), pre amber resin, or copal.

Kauri gum comes in many different types - colour, patterns and hardness, for example. The pieces featured here are of the very best quality. Hard, transparent and often containing other worldly scenes. Such pieces were much sought after, commanding up to 10 times the price of other kauri gum. When first handled by the “diggers” of old, these pieces would have brought much joy.

Also, besides shaping and polishing, the pieces shown here have not been modified.The approach has been to merely open windows into each piece to best reveal what nature herself has created. This contrasts with some resin pieces, in particular overseas, which are clarified, coloured, joined and micro-cracked to bring about better prices.

Maori used kauri gum as a pigment for their famous tattoo work. It was also used as a glue and an antiseptic treatment for wounds. Maori tell of the spiritual brothers Tohora (the whale) and Kauri, and of their painful separation when Tohora returned to the sea. One might think of kauri gum as representing the tears of the separated brothers, washed down from the ranges to the sea, and up from the depths onto the shore.

In the 1840s through to the 1980s, Kauri gum was used as a base for a number of industrial products, including varnish, linoleum and paint. For several decades it was one of New Zealand’s largest export earners, and funded much of the early development of Auckland and Northland.

In the gum fields the Croatian Dalmatian community played an outsize role, gaining great efficiency through working in groups. Regrettably, they were treated poorly, discriminated against in law and in the practices of other settlers. Yet many went on to significantly and permanently shape New Zealand, for example, providing the foundation for New Zealand’s wine and horticulture industries, as well as contributing greatly to the fishing and construction industries.

Today, the curtain is closing on this unique taonga. With the end of the kauri gum industry the supply of kauri gum all but ended. And the stock is ravaged by the curse that affects all resins, time obscures access to the beauty within each polished piece through surface cracking and oxidation. As impressive as the old collections are, today they reveal only a fraction of what would have been seen when first polished. And the impact of this creeping curse can only get worse.

And this is one of the key reasons for this exhibition - to capture forever the beauty that is freshly polished kauri gum. This is the first, and will perhaps be the last photographic exhibition of this newly revealed ancient treasure.

Finally, for the exhibition, I am eternally grateful to the incredible efforts of Pieter Verlaak (Pete) in taking such great photos. That he asked only for a contribution for gas money for his one week assignment is a testament to both his character, and to the strength of his recently found passion for this unique taonga. While his offer was unacceptable; in my view, in this exhibition Pete has given to New Zealand a wondrous and enduring gift.