The opening of He Whare Hono ō Tūwharetoa on Thursday (March 6), the new three-story building which will house several Tūwharetoa entities and the Taupō District Council, was the first chance for the public to view the immense floor-to-ceiling artwork that celebrates the tribe’s cultural identity.
Pieces in the building by renowned Tūwharetoa artists, including Haki Williams, Te Maari Gardiner, Kingi Pitiroi, Len Hetet, and Te Manawa Williams and constructed by the Human Dynamo Workshop in Wellington, aim to bring cultural stories to life in a modern context.
Speaking at the opening ceremony Williams said a word that would be heard a lot would be ‘hono’ (connection).
“The narratives that are depicted on this wall are about exactly that, hono, how we connect,” he said.
“The carvings and the patterns here talk about our ancestors who came from Hawaiki, they had a connection to their environment from the oceans to the stars and they arrived here on the shores of this land, they ventured inland to Tūwharetoa where it was established as us, the uri, as Ngāti Tūwharetoa.”
The connections were within Tūwharetoa, to the whenua, to tūpuna (ancestors), to history and how those with offices in the building connected to their communities, said Williams.
“It's a hope that when our administrative bodies have their hui here then all they need to do is cast their eyes out this window and see the reason… that we are humbled as uri of Tūwharetoa to sit beneath mountains to have a great lake in front of us and this is… the kōrero that is on this wall.”
A release from the Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board (TMTB) noted that key installations such as Ngā Mata o Tūwharetoa and the Celestial Waka drew on knowledge from the late and well-respected kaumātua Te Kanawa Pitiroi, paid tribute to Māori astronomy and the wisdom of tūpuna (ancestors), creating a space where culture, governance, and innovation could come together.
