Kauri gum
Acknowledgements
Copyright Reproduced courtesy of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Creator
Identifiers
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa number I.027090
TLF resource R5514
Source
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, http://www.tepapa.govt.nz
Description
This is a large, single piece of kauri gum that is lit to accentuate its translucent nature. It is
predominantly gold in colour with occasional patches of red and brown. It has the appearance of glass
and the shape of a rock, with fine cracks on the surface. It measures approximately 6.0 cm x 7.0 cm.
(Current scientific classification for Kauri gum - Division: Coniferophyta, Class: Pinopsida, Order:
Pinales, Family: Araucariaceae.)
Educational value
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This asset highlights gum, or resin, from the New Zealand kauri tree ('Agathis australis'), one
of New Zealand's tallest native trees - a piece such as shown here is formed when resin
exudes to fill any cracks in the bark of the tree and hardens on exposure to air; pieces of
various sizes, some weighing several kilograms, collect in the axils of the branches and in the
debris at the base of the tree.
It depicts kauri gum, which can vary in colour from pale yellow to reddish-brown and even
black - in fossilised form, the gum is harder and usually paler and more translucent than that
found in living forests.
It is an example of buried gum, which is typically found in New Zealand north of latitude 38
degrees south - buried gum has been found on sites of long-extinct kauri forests, which can be
under lake beds, swamps and sand dunes, as well as on higher ground, and buried at various
depths in strata older than the local volcanic rock; the discovery of two or three layers of gum
in the gumfields of the north indicates that a succession of kauri forests had flourished and
disappeared centuries ago, each leaving its quota of gum buried at different depths.
It illustrates a substance that Māori used for fuel, and carried alight as a torch - the soot from
burnt gum was used in tattooing and fresh gum was chewed; sometimes fresh gum was
softened by heating and mixed with puha (sow thistle, ‘Sonchus oleraceus') juice to make
kapia, a form of chewing gum.
It highlights the place of kauri gum as an export item after European contact - it was first
recognised overseas as a resin suitable for the manufacture of a slow-drying varnish with a
hard finish; by 1853, 829 tons of gum had been exported, which increased to over 4,000 tons
at an average of price of £40 a ton by 1870 and £61 a ton in 1900; by 1900 good-quality gum
was becoming harder to find, and a market therefore developed for the poorer grades, which
were used in the manufacture of linoleum.
It highlights the emergence of gum-digging as an occupation - Māori and Europeans began to
dig up the big lumps near the surface; this involved testing the ground by using long thin gum
spears to probe for pieces before digging down as deep as 5 m to retrieve the gum, which was
then placed in a pikau (a special sack); by 1885, about 2,000 diggers were at work, mainly in
areas north of Auckland; from around 1870 to 1920, the kauri gum industry was the major
source of income for pioneer settlers in this area.
It highlights kauri gum's value as a substance used in the manufacture of jewellery and
ornaments - buried kauri gum many thousands of years old proved popular with consumers.
It highlights an industry that went into decline due to the development overseas of cheap,
synthetic substitutes that could be used in the manufacture of varnish and linoleum - by the
early 1950s, only a few hundred people were employed on the gumfields and most of these
were working for wages using mechanical plants to extract gum chips from the last available
gumlands; by the 1980s, virtually no one was employed full-time in the gum industry and less
than 1 tonne was exported annually for very specialised uses.
© Curriculum Corporation and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2006, except where
indicated under Acknowledgements
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