Isaac Coates and his Māori portraits

Importance of Isaac Coates Māori portraits

Isaac Coates lived in Wellington and Nelson between June 1841 and August 1845; during that time he painted water-colour portraits of 58 Māori of the Cook Strait region, most from Te Tau Ihu (Nelson-Marlborough). Coates’s captions on each portrait include the subject’s name and valuable information identifying iwi affiliation(s) and place of residence.

His subjects spanned the widest possible range of traditional Māori society — senior chiefs (male and female, of Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Tama and Taranaki Tūturu), commoners, a number of young people, and a Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri slave, Pikiwati, later to become a guide of Thomas Brunner. Many subjects — Te Puni Honiana, Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitaake, Te Rauparaha, Te Rangihaeata, Tāmati Pirimona Marino, Ngapiko, Wi Katene Te Puoho, Maaka Tarapiko — played important roles in the new colonial settlements.

Alexander Turnbull holdings

The Alexander Turnbull Library holds 23 Coates originals and six copies. Other Coates images are held by Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford University, UK), Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Massachusetts, USA),

Australian National Library (Canberra) and Nelson Provincial Museum. The book follows Coates’s life and the lives of his subjects where they can be reliably identified. The presentation will show many of the images, and discuss why they are important.

About the speakers

The Mitchells have operated Mitchell Research from Nelson since 1985. They have examined social issues, contributed to environmental impact reports, and presented evidence to hearings, courts and the Waitangi Tribunal. They have published the four-volume series Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka: A History of Maori of Nelson and Marlborough.

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