by David Carr

Fresh encounters with Maori treasures first seen by the author at the Metropolitan Museum in 1984 revealed the concentrated power of these objects and the importance of their presence among the beliefs and continuities of their makers’ culture. A masterwork viewed in a museum may evoke a strong and sometimes inarticulate response. We might say the inability to articulate reflects a larger dimension—an aspect of the infinite—residing in the object. Museum objects return us to the human culture and knowledge we carry with us; they stimulate reflective impulses essential to the shared threads of democracy. They allow us to locate ourselves and each other, and our shared horizons.

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• David Carr (carr@ils.unc.edu) is a member of the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Photographs on these pages were taken in New Zealand by the author and are used with his permission.