Three year loop of the creative process for the New Zealand Pavilion at Expo 2020 closes in small Whanganui ceremony

New Zealand Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai. Photo / Supplied

The work and contributions of Whanganui iwi to the New Zealand Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai have been honoured with a special ceremony held in Whanganui.

The New Zealand Pavilion at the expo showcased the theme of kaitiakitanga and caring for people and place, a large focus of which was on the world-first legal status of Te Awa Tupua and the relationship local Iwi have with the Whanganui River.

The expo ran from October 2021 to March 2022 and attracted more than one million visitors.

On Thursday, July 21, a small delegation from New Zealand Trade Enterprise (NZTE) gathered with local kaumātua to officially return the mouri, the essence of the pavilion, to the Awa at Te Ao Hou Marae in Whanganui.

A small delegation from the New Zealand Trade Enterprise and local kaumātua gathered in Whanganui to return the mouri of the New Zealand pavilion at Expo 2020 to the Whanganui River. Photo / Supplied

Following the pōwhiri and kapu tī of the ceremony on Thursday, a group of young people who went to Dubai for the expo last year gave a presentation and speeches to the NZTE and iwi.

Project director Gerrard Albert said the ceremony represented the closing of a three-year loop involving a creative process in Aotearoa across multiple creative and design teams.

"As successful as our work upholding the integrity of Te Awa Tupua for Expo 2020 was, it was but one of many projects and efforts ongoing that we are driving as a people to have the mana of our awa and its people upheld," he said.

Work on the partnership for the expo pavilion first began in 2018 when NZTE sought permission from Te Pou Tupua and Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui to use Te Awa Tupua as a theme for the New Zealand pavilion.

In September 2021 in Dubai a tangaengae ceremony was conducted by a small group of Whanganui Iwi, whereupon the mouri was left in the care of the NZTE for the duration of the expo.