From 'tagger' to award-winning carver

Master carver Te Warihi Hetaraka has been honoured with an award recognising his service to Maori arts. Photo / Michael Cunningham

He's done all right, for someone who describes his younger self as a "tagger with a pocket knife".

These days Te Warihi Hetaraka, who is of Ngati Wai, Nga Puhi and Tainui descent, is well known for his carvings and has now been honoured with an award regonising his service to Maori arts.

Mr Hetaraka, 64, has had a passion for carving since he was eight. He has worked on numerous projects including the Whangarei Terenga Paraoa Marae and the Waka and Wave sculpture at the Town Basin.

Last Saturday he was honoured with the Nga Tohu a Ta Kingi Ihaka award for his service to Maori arts, in the 2014 Te Waka Toi Awards.

After learning more about the award and what it meant, Mr Hetaraka was humbled.

"There are many kaumatua who are more worthy of this than I am. On the night [of the ceremony] when it hit me, the enormity sort of struck me especially when I started seeing the quality of the other kaumatua going up on stage and listening to their life achievements. Professor Derek Lardelli, see he's a professor, gee I'm just a carver. He's the dude that composed the All Blacks haka Kapa O Pango," he laughed.

But Mr Hetaraka is not just a carver. A graduate of the first intake of the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute in Rotorua in 1969, he has since produced numerous carvings for several buildings around Whangarei and beyond.

Kura Te Waru-Rewiri, a former Te Waka Toi board member, nominated Mr Hetaraka because of his many contributions to Maori arts.

"Why yes, you might just be a carver but he's a tohunga whakairo (expert carver), he is nationally and internationally in demand for his whakairo rakau (wooden carvings). He contributes to Te Tai Tokerau in many ways by being a council adviser and with his art," she said.

Mr Hetaraka's love for carving has been with him for a long time.

"The interest in whakairo or carving happened at a very young age, it was something I felt deep inside me, it was there, I know it was.

"We descended from carvers, the person I was named after, he was a carver," he said.

The importance of carving lies in Mr Heteraka's want to continue the "profound knowledge" of his ancestors.

"I have tried to maintain the integrity and mana of the knowledge that was handed down by our ancestors in regards to culture and the recording of our culture.

"When we were going through the training [at the NZ Maori Arts and Crafts Institute] the tohunga said to us that we needed to go home and 'finish your training with your people'. Which meant go home and learn your whakapapa, learn the history of your hapu - all of those things."

Mr Hetaraka is a humble man, when asked what piece of work he was most proud of he says "all of them".

"I feel a sense of achievement once a project is completed. To see the enjoyment on the recipient's face when they look at that completed work - that's what I'm proud of."