He Pae Rangitahi—Blog snap chat: Ngā Kaiwhakairo—Carving crew

Professor Peter Adds started at the University in July 1984, an exciting time when many people were focused on the building of the wharenui. In a ‘Snap Chat’, Peter was shown this photo and asked, ‘When you look at this picture, what do you recall?’

I remember all of these guys although it’s hard to recall every name. The carving crew were formed from a PEP scheme that Takirirangi Smith ran with Hirini Moko Mead. Most of these guys weren’t proper carvers before they started. Mark Kopua was one of the few that was. The others learnt on the job. Takirirangi trained them up. It jumps out that Nick Tupara is not here, so worth noting the others that were a part of this rōpū.

The photograph was taken not long before the opening. That grass was rolled out, the mahau carvings are in place, however the maihi, amo and raparapa haven’t been installed. They were installed last.

The carvings were done in the Hunter Building’s East basement. A substantial undertaking, the team were there for some time. They had started before I began in July of ‘84, the marae opened in December ‘86, and they were carving all the way through and prior to that.

Ruka [Te Rangiahuta] Broughton and Bill [Wiremu] Parker both got sick during this time and that distracted a lot of us. Ruka died in April ‘86, not long before the house started to look like it did in this photograph. Bill passed in November, just before the opening. He was buried in Petone. I popped in to visit his grave a few weeks ago.

This photograph is taken at a time when a lot was going on simultaneously. Losing Ruka and Bill, but planning for the opening, organising the food, the furniture, and setting up the quad. It was estimated that 4,000 people turned up for the opening and they all got fed. It was amazing. John Paki did the food. John was the Māori Trustee at the time and then his daughter was our student. I was very involved in the booklet for the house. We got students to research the poupou. They wrote the stories and I edited them.  

Bill was responsible for the name of the house, but the narratives for the house and its tūpuna represented in the carvings, Ruka created those with Hirini. It was Ruka’s idea to have women represented in the porch and he came up with all the tūpuna inside the house too.

This picture’s taken on a lovely, summery looking day and the house opened in December ‘86, so, not long after.

Te Tumu Herenga Waka carvers