At Te Papa, the waharoa signifies entry into a place where hospitality and respect are extended to visitors.
Crossing the threshold
On the marae, the communal meeting place for Māori, the waharoa (gateway) is where manuhiri (visitors) assemble and wait to be called on by their hosts, the tangata whenua (people of the place). The waharoa marks the threshold of the relationship between tangata whenua and manuhiri, and it celebrates the meeting of cultures. At Te Papa it also means an invitation to partake of the knowledge and experience this place offers.
Te Papa’s waharoa
The waharoa specially created for Te Papa's Marae pays tribute to the great navigator and Māori ancestor Kupe and the many ocean-going people who migrated across the Pacific to Aotearoa New Zealand. It also acknowledges Abel Tasman and James Cook and other European navigators, as well as members of other ethnic groups who subsequently arrived on these shores.
This fine example of a traditional waharoa (gateway) was commissioned for the New Zealand government by Augustus Hamilton, the director of the Colonial Museum, Te Papa’s forerunner. In 1906, it featured in the New Zealand International Exhibition in Christchurch. Here it formed part of a double stockade that enclosed the exhibition’s model pā, called Araiteuru. Carved by Neke Kapua and his sons Tene and Eremiha, Ngāti Tarawhai, 1906.
Rongomaraeroa - Te Marae o Te Papa Tongarewa
In Māori culture, a marae is a place to meet and gather. Te Papa’s Marae is a forum for all New Zealanders to meet, discuss, debate, and to celebrate, as well as a place to welcome the living and farewell those who have passed on.
Te Papa’s Marae - Rongomaraeroa - is a functional living marae that observes Māori customs and values. It belongs to all New Zealanders and it welcomes all visitors, wherever they come from in the world.
The Marae reflects the corporate principles of Te Papa, particularly that Te Papa is a bicultural organisation. The Marae is a visible acknowledgement of the importance of Māori values and processes within this organisation. People who enter the building through the Marae are subject to kawa (protocols). Each Māori tribal grouping in New Zealand has their own kawa that express their particular tribal values. What makes Te Papa’s Marae unique is that the kawa changes according to the iwi (tribe) in residence.
Te Papa has an iwi exhibition programme. This sees an iwi, in association with Te Papa, develop and run an exhibition on Level 4, as part of the Mana Whenua exhibition, for about two-and-a-half years. Each iwi that has an exhibition nominates kaumātua (male elders) and kuia (female elders) from the iwi to stay with the exhibition for this period and uphold the mana (prestige) of the Marae. The iwi in residence sets and maintains the protocols on Te Papa’s Marae.
The Marae is much more than a whare (house) and a waharoa gateway - it is an entire complex. Each part of the complex is linked to other parts, from the carvings of Te Hono ki Hawaiki - the wharenui (meeting house) - to the environment that surrounds it.
The waharoa to Te Marae o Te Papa Tongarewa - looking out.
View facing out from Te Papa, overlooking Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara (the great harbour of Tara) - Wellington Harbour. With constructed figures and stained glass made by Luke Matthews and Oransay Smith, 1997.
The waharoa to Te Marae o Te Papa Tongarewa - looking in
View facing in towards Te Papa from Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara (the great harbour of Tara) - Wellington Harbour. With constructed figures and stained glass made by Luke Matthews and Oransay Smith, 1997.