Lintel (Pare or Kōrupe)

About this Brooklyn Icon

The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.

This lintel, called a pare or kōrupe, symbolizes the threshold between realms and exemplifies the skill of Māori tohunga whakairo (master carvers). It is thus considered a taonga (treasure).

The central figure likely depicts a female ancestor known to the carver and his iwi, a group of Māori descended from a common ancestor. Like many figures in Māori carvings, her eyes are inlaid with pāua (abalone) shell. She is situated between two manaia, hybrid beings that navigate human and spirit realms.

Hung over entryways, pare represent the boundary between external and internal worlds, which people cross when walking underneath. This pare likely topped the entrance to a wharepuni (sleeping house) or pātaka (raised storehouse). It would have been one of many intricately carved architectural elements on marae (communal gathering spaces), each of which conveys aspects of iwi identity.

Recent provenance research by by Māori scholar Deidre Brown has determined that this pare was purchased by English missionary Thomas Kendall and sent to England in 1823, making it one of the earliest whakairo rākau (wood carvings) shipped to Europe from Aotearoa New Zealand. Research with Māori kaumātua (elders) and community members is ongoing and will hopefully shed more light on the history of this pare, its carver, and the iwi from which it came.