Hawaiki Tūranga sculpture installation opening planned for new year

Work on completing the Hawaiki Tūranga sculpture is coming to an end with an official opening expected to be held in the new year.

Significant progress has been made with the Hawaiki Tūranga sculpture located on Gisborne’s former Wattie’s site, and an official opening is expected to take place in the new year.

The main sculpture of the Hawaiki Tūranga installation, representing the front of a wharenui (meeting house), now features representations of Kiwa and Pawa.

A poutokomanawa or centre ridge post of a wharenui, representing paramount chief Ruapani, has also been erected recently.

This poutokomanawa, or centre ridge, post of a wharenui, represents Ruapani, who was regarded as the paramount chief of all the Tūranganui-a-Kiwa tribes around 1525.

Te Runanga o Tūranganui a Kiwa chief executive Ron Nepe confirmed the sculpture was not yet finished.

There was still work to be done with lighting on the site while landscaping was underway, and it would be completed in the new year.

The opening would be in the new year, but the date was yet to be confirmed, said Nepe.

The sculpture was originally scheduled for completion in 2018 or 2019 for Tuia 250, commemorating the sestercentennial (250th anniversary) of the first meetings between Māori and Europeans following the arrival of James Cook in early October 1769.

Another proposed completion date was early 2025.

One reason for the delay was the discovery of asbestos and hydrocarbon contamination on the site.

Pawa (Pāoa) was the captain of the Horouta waka, while Kiwa arrived from Hawaiki on the Tākitimu waka.

According to one legend, Kiwa waited so long for the Horouta waka to arrive that he called its final landing place Tūranganui-a-Kiwa (the long waiting place of Kiwa).

The 6.3m high and 16m wide sculpture is made of bronze, steel and copper.

Earlier this year, Gisborne District Council, in response to Gisborne Herald queries, said the council had contributed $100k toward commissioning the artwork.

Since 2020, the total cost of the project was $725,000, for contamination investigations, professional fees, consents, soil remediation, and 50% of the shared cost toward storage and installation of the sculpture.

Of this, $400,000 was granted from the Government’s Better Off funding, while the council contributed $325,000.