The lost whare found again

Rose Mohi pictured with her carving, Whakato. Photo / FIle

Ngati Kahungunu elder Rose Mohi is on a mission to bring home all the missing pieces of the wharenui (meeting house) Heretaunga III.

For almost a century 61 original poupou have laid scattered around the globe in places such as Denmark, Scotland, Hawaii, across the United States and throughout Australia, as well as in Otago.

But gathering them together has been a 10-year labour of love, researching and locating each individual carving.

"I really wanted to do it, I don't know if I'll finish it or whether I will get this all together, but it has to be pulled together."

So far, she has tracked down every one and even found seven more along the way.

All of the poupou were carved in Pakowhai Hawke's Bay by Ngati Porou carver Hoani Tahu, who was commissioned by Mohi's great-great grandfather Karaitiana Takamoana.

They were nearly complete and a ridge pole was needed to complete the wharenui.

However, Takamoana died before the wharenui could be completed. After his death, Augustus Hamilton, a well-known museum director of the time, took the carvings to Dunedin for an exhibition.

Then they were bought by a collector named Thomas Hopkin in the late 1880s.
"Back 100 years ago there was a craze for Maori art and because Maori art was so rare it was highly sought after," says Amber Logan.

Logan has taken on a research role with Mohi for this project and says it is hard to put a monetary value on their worth in this day and age.

"They were extremely valuable back then and they are extremely valuable now, it wouldn't be an unrealistic expectation for some of them to sell for millions."

After the death of Thomkin in 1901 they went into the Otago Museum and that is where some of them still are.

However, during the 1920s and 1930s many of them were swapped around the world, so about 30 sit in museums around the globe.

There is only one original poupou that remains in Hawke's Bay and it is held at the MTG Museum, where it is on display in the Tenei Tonu exhibition.

Getting them back is the enormous task Mohi has ahead of her and she believes it will take government assistance to make it happen.

"The return of these carvings are in the He Toa Takitini Treaty claim, so I think the New Zealand ones will probably come back quite easily but whether the government will start negotiating for us and start talking to the other museums around the world; that would be a good possibility," explains Mohi.

She is in Washington DC in America this month to begin opening the doors of communication to repatriate those carvings to Hawke's Bay.

She is a guest speaker at the International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums, where she will be taking this topic to the world.