Historic carving heads back to Auckland

HISTORY MADE: Bernard Makoare, Phil Cross, Dixon Motu, Haami Piripi, Roy Clare CBE and Haare Williams at the arrival of the Tangonge Waharoa in Kaitaia in 2012.

One of New Zealand's most significant carvings will return to Auckland tomorrow, more than three years after it arrived at Kaitaia's Far North Heritage Museum and Archives on loan from its permanent home at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Tangonge Waharoa (once also known as the Tangonge Lintel) was to have spent a year in Kaitaia, just a short distance from where it was discovered in 1920, but the stay was extended to three years.

Carved from totara, and dating to the 14th-16th centuries, Tangonge was discovered when Lake Tangonge, between Kaitaia and Ahipara, was drained. It arrived at Te Ahu after a ceremony at Pukepoto's Te Uri o Hina Marae, and will return there tomorrow before the journey back to Auckland.

Auckland War Memorial Museum director Roy Clare, who accompanied the carving to Kaitaia, described it as an important link in New Zealand history because of its difference in form and style to the carving that followed.

"Historically and culturally it is hugely significant, which is why it holds such an important place in our museum," he said.

"It also holds massive significance for the people of Te Rarawa, Te Tai Tokerau and the Far North.

"The return of the carving is recognition of the bond this taonga forges between the museum as its custodian, the people of Te Rarawa, its spiritual guardians and Te Ahu."

Te Runanga o Te Rarawa chairman Haami Piripi said last time the taonga was lent to Te Rarawa, for just one week, it had a striking effect on the iwi's spirit and morale.

This extended loan would make a major contribution to empowering iwi, "an essential element for the community development of our whanau and hapu".

Then museum chairman Phil Cross agreed.

"It was an incredibly emotive, positive experience, and one that created a real sense of pride," he said.

"It is indicative of the ethos that unless you know where you've come from, you don't know where you are going. The carving provides that sense of where things have come from."

The carving, which is said to show how Maori art evolved from its Polynesian origins, has a central figure with outward-facing manaia motifs at each end, like later door lintels. Tangonge is unique, however, in that both sides are fully carved, suggesting it may have stood over a gateway.