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 amongst MTG’s treasures to bring 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 sixty one pou for a magnificent wharenui.
His purpose was to uplift the spirits of his people and celebrate the return of Ngāti Kahungunu hapū after their twenty year exodus to Mahia. They had suffered devastating losses of life through the Muskets Wars, through European-introduced diseases, and the loss of their whenua during the Land War 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’.
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 fore-father 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 whanau were expecting them back. The pou were then traded by the museum’s director, H.D. 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 twenty 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 hundred and thirty 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 decontextualized in museums and separated from their descendents, they have also been separated from the rich korero 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 each other’s families and stories. Back in the classroom Tamatea High School has followed-up and invited Rose to speak with them. They have responded with letters to some of the museums where the pou are held to discover more of the story. Students are excited to be part of their journey home, 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.
Published in the Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper on 9 April 2022 and written by Denise Sewell, MTG Educator.
MTG Hawkes Bay 