In the moments before the first Test started in Christchurch last week the television cameras alighted on the new Crowe-Thorpe Trophy, the prize that awaits the winners of the ongoing series between New Zealand and England. On TNT Sports Alastair Cook grew effusive. “It’s not often that boards get things absolutely spot on but that is a brilliant trophy,” he said, “and whoever came up with the idea, it’s fantastic.”
That will be the Maori artist David Ngawati. ““I did different concepts and drawings for New Zealand cricket,” he says. “I guess it’s a co-creation really. People tell me the story and then I create concepts from that, then they decide what they want to go with.”
What they ended up with was anything but your standard silver cup. The final taonga (a Maori term for a highly prized or treasured possession) has an auburn wooden base that holds a sculpture made of two particular and special pieces of willow – the bat Martin Crowe used to score a century against England in 1994 and the one Graham Thorpe used to score two against New Zealand in 1997. From various angles it appears to be shaped like an upended canoe or a toucan’s beak. It is decorated with a simple, flowing pattern and inlaid with one circular pieces of jade on each side, specifically a stone the Maori call inanga, a kind of pounamu.
“It’s a pinnacle, the highest mountain or the highest viewpoint, and then the very base of it is the foundation of them being able to get to the highest point,” Ngawati says. “So that incorporates in particular their family members on each side, their clubs, their community, everyone who supported them is the foundation for them to be able to go up the mountain, walk the path towards the highest achievement. The pounamu for us is the really top place, the treasured gem in the mountain.”
The process of creating the Crowe-Thorpe Trophy took about a month, starting with discussions with New Zealand Cricket about the design, continuing with them liaising with the two players’ families about getting their bats, and finally the creation of the taonga itself.
“It was a long process for New Zealand Cricket to talk with Graham’s wife around getting the bat,” Ngawati says. “They’re still in the grieving process, right? It’s still early times for them in this. We’re just really thankful for them to entrust in us, to be able to create a wonderful trophy and tribute to them both.
“There’s a lot of depth in it, there’s a lot of thought. There’s a lot of conversation that can come through. I’m a bit of a hermit so I sat down with this trophy and went through a really long process with it. I received these two bats and I have to think of them as being weapons really, the weapons they used to fight the different countries.
“To have those bats, there’s a process in that too. I talk to them, I feel the energy that’s there, I can smell the sweat and my senses start feeling.
“The best word would be connect. I connect with the people I’m working with as best I can. Although I had limited time I still had the opportunity to build that relationship. Especially with willow – I’d never used willow before, usually I use indigenous woods, but Kookaburra sent me a few bits so I was able to get a bit of a smell of it, get a feel for it. And I go into my personal side of things, like my grandfather was English. I never got to meet him, nor did my mother, but he was from Aldershot. I know nothing about this place but my whakapapa, my genealogy, is really important for who I am now, so I start stepping into that.”
Ngawati also created the Tangiwai Shield, which New Zealand won by beating South Africa in last year’s Test series. That trophy commemorates a deadly train crash on Christmas Eve 1953, while the Crowe-Thorpe trophy commemorates two beloved and hugely missed former players. They are objects of celebration and also of mourning. “I guess that’s part of the healing, right?,” says Ngawati, whose company, Mahu Creative, specialises in making custom taonga of all kinds.
“I’m a co-creator, I’m merely the vessel. I tell this to my clients. You’ve got the story and a lot of it is deep, it holds a lot of weight. It does take its toll on me but I’ve experienced a lot of grief and loss, so it’s been part of my journey and is part of life’s journey. We’re humans on a human journey, we’re not fully spiritual so that transition, when we go on to, we say the other side, that’s the spiritual journey.
“The very top of the trophy is them ascending to … whatever people want to call it. I talked to New Zealand Cricket about that as well. Letting them go is important. They’ve done their time here. For the younger people coming up, in the game of cricket or just anybody really, it’s for them to start on their journey now.”
Ngawati is already working on some more projects with CNZ. “In New Zealand once you establish trust with a carver, in particular a wood carver, who’s connected to the land generally you’ll keep giving them opportunities, but I’m only as good as my last creation,” he says. Having never been to a first-class game before, Ngawati was in Christchurch for the start of the first Test.
“It was really good, really welcoming. I enjoyed the English supporters, the Barmy Army, wanting to see the trophy and get many pictures of it,” he says. “I was able to meet some of Graham Thorpe’s family friends. I enjoyed it. But I’d say it’s not my scene – I wouldn’t spend money to go and do something like that, that’s for sure.”
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