Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

From the MTG: Searching for our taonga

By Denise Sewell
Hawkes Bay Today·
8 Apr, 2022 01:16 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Tamatea High School students participate in MTG Hawke's Bay's education programme. Photo / Meredith Ellingham

Tamatea High School students participate in MTG Hawke's Bay's education programme. Photo / Meredith Ellingham

Under flickering florescent lights in the museum education room, with only the draft of the new Aotearoa New Zealand's histories curriculum to go by, the education team fossicked among MTG's treasures to put together a new programme that would bring this document alive for our ākonga/students.

Our main focus has been the stories from our own backyard, Te Matau-a-Māui/Hawke's Bay and how our past shapes who we are today.

We didn't have to dig too deep into the dragon's treasure trove to find them. Through the museum front doors and along the far wall of the exhibition Kuru Taonga: Voices of Kahungunu are two intricately carved totara poupou/panels. These were commissioned a century and a half ago by the Ngāti Kahungunu rangatira and politician, Karaitiana Takamoana of Pākowhai.

Taonga whakairo traditionally play dynamic and complex roles in Māori society. They are vessels through which ākonga can learn and think critically about our local history - the good, the bad and the ugly - of colonisation, power and relationships.

According to local history, Karaitiana commissioned Aotearoa's finest master carvers, Hone Taahu and his nephew Hoani Ngatai from the Iwirākau carving school in Tairāwhiti, to carve approximately 61 pou for a magnificent wharenui.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

His purpose was to uplift the spirits of his people and celebrate the return of Ngāti Kahungunu hapū after their 20-year exodus to Mahia.

They had suffered devastating losses of life through the Musket Wars, through European-introduced diseases, and the loss of their whenua during the Land Wars period.

While the sorrowful demise of Māori seemed imminent, European collectors of taonga Māori became increasingly keen to preserve the relics of what some saw as a "dying and noble race".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The pou represent Ngāti Kahungunu gods, ancestors and tell their stories through the generations. A massive 72-foot tahuhu/ridge pole (some say it was 150-feet) was sourced north of Gisborne, and floated along rivers and across the ocean towards the Ngaruroro river. It never arrived, and in 1879 Karaitiana died so the pou were left until such time as the project could be resurrected.

A guest at Karaitiana's tangi was Dr Thomas Hocken, an enthusiastic collector of taonga Māori.

Ten years later, while he was part of the organising committee for the 1889-90 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin, a carved meeting house was a top priority as an exhibit.

Hocken contacted Augustus Hamilton, the honorary curator of the Philosophical Institute and a forefather of MTG Hawke's Bay/Tai Ahuriri, and the pou were acquired and assembled in time for the exhibition.

Hocken purchased the pou and bequeathed them in his will to the Otago Museum. All the while, the Karaitiana whānau were expecting them back. The pou were then traded by the museum's director, HD Skinner with other museums in New Zealand and the rest of the world. This wharenui has been described as the most scattered meeting house in the world.

For the last 20 years, a descendant of his, Rose Mohi, has been on a mission to find and bring home the carvings of her ancestors. She has located and visited many of them. They are in pristine condition, having been kept for the last 130 years in museum storage vaults.

Historian Paul Tapsell provides an insight into the special nature of taonga Māori in Māori society and the life-force qualities held within them. "On occasions some will disappear for an indefinite time but like the orbital path of a comet, they will always find a way home".

While there was only one pou in Hawke's Bay, another held by Te Papa returned last October. Sadly, as has been the fate of taonga decontextualised in museums and separated from their descendants, they have also been separated from the rich kōrero that surrounds them. The journey of the pou over the last 150 years has become part of their story and we are fortunate to have Rose dedicated to their recovery.

We have had a number of schools come to learn the story behind the pou. While it represents some of the difficult aspects of our colonial past, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and tino rangatiratanga, discovering local history through the pou has given them a deeper understanding and connection to our local places and people.

While at the museum, students have designed their own pou of a special family member. It has been great to hear about one another's families and stories.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Back in the classroom, Tamatea High School has followed up and invited Rose to speak to them. They have responded with letters to some of the museums where the pou are held to discover more of their story.

Students are excited to be part of the journey home of the pou, and to see this magnificent wharenui completed. Some ākonga have had the odd spine-tingling moment when visiting the taonga, which is not surprising.

Come and visit them for yourself.

Denise Sewell
MTG Educator

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Plan to drill wastewater pipe under Clive River withdrawn amid opposition

08 Jul 02:32 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

Hawke’s Bay Magpies land another Super Rugby star for upcoming NPC campaign

07 Jul 11:17 PM
Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

'100% a crisis': More than 900 women wait for specialist gynaecology care in Hawke’s Bay

07 Jul 06:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Plan to drill wastewater pipe under Clive River withdrawn amid opposition

Plan to drill wastewater pipe under Clive River withdrawn amid opposition

08 Jul 02:32 AM

'We are in a position where we will have to find alternatives.'

Hawke’s Bay Magpies land another Super Rugby star for upcoming NPC campaign

Hawke’s Bay Magpies land another Super Rugby star for upcoming NPC campaign

07 Jul 11:17 PM
Premium
'100% a crisis': More than 900 women wait for specialist gynaecology care in Hawke’s Bay

'100% a crisis': More than 900 women wait for specialist gynaecology care in Hawke’s Bay

07 Jul 06:00 PM
Premium
Editorial: Coronial inquest into deaths in flooding will hurt - hopefully it will also help

Editorial: Coronial inquest into deaths in flooding will hurt - hopefully it will also help

07 Jul 05:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP