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Mataatua wharenui is the most travelled Māori meeting house in the country. Built in 1875, it was taken to Australia, London and Otago before being returned to Whakatāne after more than a century away.
The story of Mataatua is part of the story of the desecration of Ngāti Awa by the Crown and the fight of the people to regain their sovereignty. Following the confiscation of Ngāti Awa land in the 1860s and the devastation to the people of Ngāti Awa, building a wharenui was proposed as a way to reunite Ngāti Awa. The result was Mataatua, a magnificent wharenui, honoring the people, their history and whakapapa, and the skills of the craftspeople, and establishing a living marae.
Shortly after it was opened, the government requested that Mataatua be an exhibit at the Sydney International Exhibition, and from here, it travelled across the globe until ending as an exhibit in Otago Museum. By this time, the government had claimed ownership of Mataatua, and it took more than fifty years of perseverance by Ngāti Awa to have Mataatua returned to Whakatāne to again become a living wharenui in the care of its people. In words and photographs, the book describes the history and construction of Mataatua, its appropriation, work undertaken by generations to have it returned, and the detail of its rebuild and opening in 2011.
About the author
Sir Hirini Moko Mead is a pre-eminent M¿?ori writer, commentator and scholar. In the course of a distinguished academic career he authored numerous books on M¿?ori art (including Te Toi Whakairo: The Art of Maori Carving, with Oratia Books) and developed the first Department of M¿?ori Studies in the country at Victoria University. He was knighted in 2009 for services to M¿?ori and education. A leader of his iwi (tribe) Ng¿?ti Awa, he lives in Wellington, New Zealand.
