The portrait of Māori leader Sir Apirana Ngata will forever take pride of place in Parliament. Photo / Te Ao with Marama
The portrait of Māori leader Sir Apirana Ngata will forever take pride of place in Parliament. Photo / Te Ao with Marama
The Māori Affairs committee room at Parliament - Mātangireia - is getting a facelift for its 100th anniversary present.
Led by Heritage New Zealand kaihautu pouhere taonga Dean Whiting, the restoration will ensure the room, which is adorned with carvings and tukutuku panels, is always looking its best.
"It expressesMāori at that time, capturing the arts, where they were at and the political aspirations of our people being expressed so powerfully in this humble room, I would say modest room in size," Whiting says.
The room's construction in 1922 was led by Sir Apirana Ngata, who at that time was pushing for a revival of Māōri arts and culture.
Every panel and carving is being meticulously recorded, including descendants of the original artists.
"So this is very early on in that journey of revitalisation of the arts, with Te Arawa carvers coming in to do this work, that was one of the few areas in the country where the legacy of whakairo had been maintained."
The restoration team at Parliament hoping the preserve the essence of the Maori Affairs committee room, Mātangireia, at Parliament. Photo / Te Ao with Marama
Whiting says the work is being carried out with a degree of reverence as restorers imagine the discussions and decisions made in the room that would have affected Māori for the next 100 years.
"We speak quite quietly in here. We are in a bit of reverence of the words that are embodied in all of these tukutuku panels and this whakairo and even very recently I know of tribes coming and, for part of their settlement processes, have chosen to use this room for those very significant moments in their history. So it is a witness to so much and I suppose, over time, it's built this sort of all-knowing presence."
Master weaver and Heritage New Zealand restorer Jim Schuster says the restoration is unique because it is not in a traditional wharenui.
"It's an ongoing history. I mean, it would've been a first and a revelation probably back in the day when it opened in 1922. Now that's a lot earlier than a lot of wharenui that are around the motu."
Schuster says Sir Apirana's vision was to use traditional arts to uplift the people after turbulent times including the 1918 flu epidemic, which decimated the Māori population.
"This is a special place. It was a way of uplifting the people again. Getting people to come and weave tukutuku was not only binding these elements but binding the people together."
