They would once have been a common sight in the bush-clad hills around Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. But the huia’s beauty proved to be its ultimate downfall. Sacred to Māori and prized as curiosities by European settlers, huia were hunted relentlessly. Scientists, too, collected huia specimens in the name of education.

These factors, along with deforestation and the introduction of pests, meant huia numbers nosedived. While there have been unconfirmed sightings as recently as the 1960s, the last verified sighting of a huia was in 1907.

Fast-forward many decades later to when the team from Te Herenga Waka’s Te Kura Mātauranga Koiora—School of Biological Sciences (SBS) was packing up offices to move into the new Te Toki a Rata building on Kelburn Parade.

“I popped into a former colleague’s office and glanced over to his bookshelf and went cold,” professor of Biology Kevin Burns explains. “There were these two priceless huia specimens—a male and female—just sitting there. He had recognised they were important so didn’t keep them with the other animal skins, which were locked away in wooden cabinets. But the question remained: What should we do with them? Because they were clearly of incredible significance and it was disrespectful to these huia to keep them hidden away.”

There’s no record of how the University acquired the pair of huia, but Kevin says they would have been used as teaching tools in Biology labs, where they were poked and prodded in the name of learning.

“Huia is the world’s most sexually dimorphic bird species, meaning the males and females look almost totally different to each other,” he says. “The female had this long, downward-arcing bill, and the male had a short, sharp bill. They worked in pairs—he would chisel the wood to open it up, and she would stick her long bill in to retrieve the wood-boring insects inside. Biologically speaking, they are spectacular.”

Kevin helped negotiate for the huia pair to be stored safely in a climate-controlled environment at the Adam Art Gallery while plans were made about how to display them.

At a meeting to discuss planting and water systems for the Living Pā, it dawned on Kevin that the marae would be the perfect place to display the huia with the reverence they deserved. The SBS has formally donated the pair to the Living Pā, and the new custodians are in the process of ensuring the birds’ expert preservation so they can be admired and serve as a cautionary tale for generations to come.

“They serve as a stark visual lesson: we are custodians of nature and we buggered the place up—even scientists are at least partially to blame,” Kevin says. “There’s a responsibility that comes with being a New Zealander—particularly as a student here or as a scientist—to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Professor Rawinia Higgins, the University’s deputy vice-chancellor (Māori), says the birds will serve as a reminder of our past and what we can learn from it.

“Their narrative, and how they came to be part of the University, provides us with an insight not only into the importance of nature and conservation but also methodologies of preservation and display that have evolved,” she says. “Practices at different moments in history were of their time and, as we learn more about technology and development, we adapt. The huia story complements the Living Pā vision: Mō te āpōpō—for a better future.”

About the Living Pā—mō te āpōpō

The Living Pā project will see the redevelopment of Te Herenga Waka marae precinct on the University’s Kelburn campus.

The project will create a learning and innovation hub, designed to meet the Living Future Institute’s standards for environmentally responsible buildings. As well as solar panels to provide electricity, the new building will include a rainwater collection system and onsite greywater recycling.

Works in 2022 included removing the remaining structures on the land at 42–50 Kelburn Parade and levelling the site. Main construction got under way in August with the timber piles for the building being put down.

The Living Pā will be opened in 2024. Find out more about the project and how to support it at wgtn.ac.nz/living-pa