Maori Response to Gothic Architecture Book Report

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By introducing abstract sequences, these people practically made it difficult and almost impossible for Christian leaders to consider that they needed to get involved in altering these concepts.

The coming of George Augustus Selwyn in New Zealand had a strong effect on attitudes that the church would express with regard to the presence of Maori elements in churches. A power struggle within Christianity between Selwyn and Evangelical missionaries influenced natives to believe that their guests were not necessarily as connected with God as they claimed to be. As natives became more and more detached from Christian influential individuals they started to concentrate on adopting Gothic influences in designing diverse buildings.

Builders who were mainly interested in creating structures that would be in agreement with Maori traditions thus created a series of buildings that were not necessarily meant to provide people with a place for worship. Instead, these buildings were meant to praise Maori cultural values and to provide Maori tribes and their leaders with a location where they could discuss important ideas and strategies they needed to employ in order to succeed in endeavors that they were concerned about. These meeting houses held a great deal of carved elements, and, even though they contained Gothic elements, they were largely meant to emphasize the fact that the Maori were greatly concerned about maintaining most of the principles that had been influential in their history until their first interactions with Christians.

While the presence of Gothic elements in Maori architecture was initially meant to portray the connection between Maori cultural elements and Christianity, Gothic architecture in New Zealand gradually came to be very different from how it was in typical Christian-dominated territories. Maori tribes took their attention away from trying to unite Christianity with Maori tradition and practically took advantage of the fact that they learnt a great deal of architectural information as a result of their relationship with Christians.

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This enabled them to design unique and intriguing buildings meant to fit a series of purposes. Meeting houses built throughout the late nineteenth century are impressive examples of how Maori tribes adopted Gothic elements with the intention of creating works that would fit their needs.

It was not necessarily that the Maori did not appreciate the Christian idea of God, as they actually appreciated Christian tradition and information in the Bible. Even with this, they came to consider that Anglican, Evangelical, and Catholic missionaries were inclined to introduce their personal feelings in putting across the word of God. As a consequence, they decided that it was in their best interest to assimilate Gothic architectural elements into their culture and to keep a series of ideas concerning God while focusing on preserving their cultural values.

Brown's journal article raises a series of questions concerning the relationship between Christian missionaries and Maori tribes in the nineteenth century, reasons why the two groups had trouble reaching an agreement concerning architecture, and how Maori tribes came to develop their own version of Gothic architecture. One of the most intriguing aspects about the article is that it emphasizes how Maori tribes were reluctant to be assimilated by Christianity. One can actually say that the plan that missionaries took on during their initial interactions with the Maori backfired. Instead of influencing Maori tribes to express more and more interest in their interpretations of the Bible, they simply provided these peoples with the opportunity to understand that they could introduce their own points-of-view into the matter and that it was possible for them to use architectural elements brought by Christians with the purpose of designing buildings that would serve their personal purposes. Gothic influence on Maori architects experienced a graduate process during which they got actively involved in altering many of its elements in an attempt to have it in accordance with….....

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