The HUMANZ Logo
The two components of the logo are a palm tree from a Cretan vase from about 1900 BC and a hei or Maori fish hook amulet from early North Island New Zealand. They combine to represent the partnership between Maori and Pakeha which, in our history, is symbolised by the Treaty of Waitangi.
These images also refer to the natural world which sustains us. By suggesting how the land and sea of New Zealand have become caught up in the global flow of cultures, they signify continuing cultural change.
The fish hook is a reminder of the Polynesian cultural innovator Maui who by “fishing up” the islands of the Pacific created a pathway from Asia to the Pacific just as, together with the palm, it also suggests the ships which linked Europe to New Zealand.
The Cretan palm is a reminder of the invention of writing, specifically the development of syllabic script at Phaestus in the same period.
Language, spoken and written, is the foundation of the humanities/aronui as the gathering together of cultural knowledge. Our logo images the arts and humanities endlessly interacting with each other, creating and interpreting our cultures.
Logo design by John Bevan Ford (Ngati Raukawa ki Kapiti) 1996
The completed logo (above right) was designed by Mark McGuire, School of Design, University of Otago.
