Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Donations sought to restore Taupō's modern Māori rock carvings

Taupo & Turangi Weekender
26 Feb, 2019 11:23 PM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Taupo Rowing Club school rowers at the modern Maori carvings at Mine Bay, Lake Taupo. A fundraising appeal is underway for the carvings' restoration.

Taupo Rowing Club school rowers at the modern Maori carvings at Mine Bay, Lake Taupo. A fundraising appeal is underway for the carvings' restoration.

The Mine Bay Māori Rock Carvings in Lake Taupō, one of the North Island's national taonga and biggest tourist attractions, needs your help.

Master carver Matahi Whakataka Brightwell is the creator of the rock carvings, a towering 14m high sculpture of the great navigator and high priest Ngātoroirangi.

This masterpiece is one of New Zealand's most extraordinary contemporary Māori artworks.

Brightwell wants to lead a small team to improve and restore the smaller carvings that surround the giant carving of Ngātoroirangi to return them to their original state.

As well as the work to tidy and repair the carvings, there is the need to train a new generation of carvers for the artwork's future maintenance as Mr Brightwell is now in his 70s.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The sculpture of Ngātoroirangi, and the smaller sculptures of tūpuna (ancestors) and kaitiaki (guardians) nearby were created in the 1970s by Brightwell and a team of four others — Jono Randell, Te Miringa Hohaia, Dave Hegglun and Steve Myhre.

It was created at the request of Brightwell's grandmother, Te Huatahi Susie Gilbert, who asked her grandson to create a likeness of Ngātoroirangi to create a permanent connection for her family to the land.

With no suitable tōtara tree available, Mr Brightwell travelled on to Lake Taupō for inspiration.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Master carver Matahi Whakataka Brightwell, artistic creator of Taupo's Maori rock carvings at Mine Bay.
Master carver Matahi Whakataka Brightwell, artistic creator of Taupo's Maori rock carvings at Mine Bay.

The importance of the sculpture to Brightwell, his iwi and to the Taupō district has spanned generations, with tourists from all over the world travelling out on Lake Taupō to take a picture of his masterpiece.

Nowadays the sculpture is considered one of New Zealand's most extraordinary artworks and a major drawcard for visitors to the area.

It is also a major representation for the Māori people in the tourism sector.

Acquiring enough funding to create and restore can be a struggle, so local tourism operator Chris Jolly Outdoors, which runs scenic cruises to the carvings, is asking New Zealand to support Brightwell by donating to help with the renovation and restoration of this national taonga over the next few months.

Discover more

Taupo carver recognised for lake artwork

31 Oct 04:00 PM

A Givealittle page has been set up here.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

'Geeks and creatives' hope award shows rangitahi they 'belong in tech'

19 Jun 03:10 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

19 Jun 01:59 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

Blind and deaf man dies after hit-and-run, police release new images of suspect

19 Jun 01:04 AM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

'Geeks and creatives' hope award shows rangitahi they 'belong in tech'

'Geeks and creatives' hope award shows rangitahi they 'belong in tech'

19 Jun 03:10 AM

'We really have something special going on here,' the academy co-founder says.

Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

19 Jun 01:59 AM
Blind and deaf man dies after hit-and-run, police release new images of suspect

Blind and deaf man dies after hit-and-run, police release new images of suspect

19 Jun 01:04 AM
League player's preventable death prompts coroner's warning of 'run it straight' trend

League player's preventable death prompts coroner's warning of 'run it straight' trend

18 Jun 11:35 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP