Ngāti Ira in Waioeka is working with Anthony Hoete, a Māori architect and professor at Auckland University, to reconstruct their whare tīpuna, Tanewhirinaki, through an ao Māori lens.
A descendant of Ngāti Ira, Riki Kurei, says the original ancestral house of Tanewhirinaki has been deconstructed and preserved for over 90 years.
“It's been a long time waiting. It's so exciting, because this is mātauranga that my people don't know about and to put up this house will further expand our knowledge as a hapū."
Kurei says he has been motivated to reconstruct his ancestral house since he was a kid and has studied since the age of 18 years old, finally becoming the kaitiaki/guardian of Tanewhirinaki.
“My koro, Horotepopo, was the one who actually put up this house, him and other whānau members, so yeah it's been a long time for me, to finally do this mahi with the Auckland University and Anthony Hoete to give back to our hapū.”
The wharenui Tanewhirinaki in Waioeka was destroyed during the Napier earthquake but, under the direction of Professor Hoete and a team from the University of Auckland, they have started to reconstruct a portion of the wharenui, using an endangered building technique known as mīmiro to build a full-scale prototype timber structure to determine how well it will withstand future earthquakes.
Two years so far
Hoete says that shortly after he returned to Aotearoa from London, Ngāti Ira approached him to ask if he might help with the reconstruction and he was excited to see what he could do to help.
“It's taken us two years to do this mahi. Last year we had a wānanga with Ngāti Ira where we took their whakairo out of the shed and stood them up temporarily for three days.
“Ngāti Ira asked their hapū if they wanted to see Tanewhirinaki stand again and the resounding answer to the question was yes and so this is the second stage, now testing the resilience of this construction, which could support those whakairo.”
Ngāti Ira kaumatua Te Rua Rakuraku says he is proud of all the mahi his nephew, Riki Kurei and the team from the Auckland university have done.
“This technique, mīmiro is of our ancestors and I am very proud of them for following this ancient tikanga and reconstructing our ancestral house.”
“Our ancestors were scientists, they were researchers, doctors, everything. We didn't use nails or anything, so seeing our whānau and the team doing this mahi is amazing.”