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A wheku carving was found at Omakiwi Cove, Bay of Islands, and traced to a grave.
Siblings from Whangārei and the South Island identified it as from their father’s grave.
Arana Rewha will care for the carving until the family reclaims it.
The wheku, a carved representation of a human face,was discovered at Omakiwi Cove, at Te Rāwhiti in the Bay of Islands, last Friday.
The finder alerted Arana Rewha, a kaitiaki [guardian] for the hapū Ngāti Kuta, who was mystified by how such a large, heavy carving came to be in the water.
The owners of a large carving washed up on a Northland beach have been found - but how it ended up in the sea remains a mystery. Photo / Arana Rewha
The wheku measures about 600mm long by 300mm wide and is almost 100mm thick.
Its good condition showed it had not been in the sea for long, while its distinctive Ngāpuhi style suggested it had not travelled far.
Rewha made extensive inquiries around Te Rāwhiti to find out if anyone was missing a carving, then shared photos to community social media pages and carving groups around the country.
RNZ’s story about the mystery carving eventually caught the eye of siblings living in Whangārei and the South Island, who were shocked to learn the carving from their father’s grave had somehow ended up in the sea.
Rewha said their second reaction was joy it had been found and was in safe hands.
“They were freaked out it had ended up in the water, but rapt to get it back … They were quite relieved somebody had found it and tried to get it back to them.”
Rewha said the siblings had travelled to the Far North for Christmas and visited their father’s grave at a hilltop urupā (cemetery) at Te Rāwhiti.
Arana Rewha was determined to return the carving, discovered at Omakiwi Cove, at Te Rāwhiti in the Bay of Islands, to its rightful place. Photo / RNZ-Peter de Graaf
During their tidy-up of his final resting place, they had cleaned and repainted the carving that marked his grave.
Rewha said the wheku was not bolted down but it was large and heavy.
“I’m still unsure of how it got from the grave into the water. Wind definitely couldn’t pick it up, unless you had a tornado.”
Rewha said he would look after the carving until the whānau was able to reclaim it.
He was pleased it was going back to its rightful place.
“Somebody definitely loved that carving. They put a lot of time into it. It needed to find its owners and get it back to where it was meant to be.”
The man who originally found the carving thought it may have come from an urupā.
He was reluctant to touch it and instead alerted Rewha, who performed a karakia before taking it to a safe place.
In the days after the carving’s discovery many theories were put forward as to where it could have come from.
One of the most plausible theories came from Northland carver Tony Makiha, who noted the wheku at the top of a carved gateway at Otehei Bay, on Urupukapuka Island, was missing.
Rewha, however, said the Ōtehei Bay carving was removed some years ago and put into storage because it had started to deteriorate.
He said the Ōtehei Bay whakaruruhau, or shelter, was originally topped not with a wheku but with a small pou and a piece of wood inscribed with a dedication.
Rewha said he knew that whakaruruhau well because he had helped carve it.
Since the original story about the carving was published on Sunday it has been read by many thousands of people and shared hundreds of times on various news and social media platforms.
Readers have contacted RNZ about the mystery from as far away as Vienna, Austria.
It’s not the first time a carving has embarked on a journey by sea before eventually returning home.
During Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023, a carved pou was swept away from Tāngoio Marae, near Napier.
It was washed up on the Mahia Peninsula, in northern Hawke’s Bay, in November last year after 650 days at sea.
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