Story: Tauranga Moana tribes
This meeting house, opened on Christmas Day 1915, was built by Ngāti Pūkenga to commemorate the son of the ancestor from whom they take their name. It is one of two main Ngāti Pūkenga meeting houses, the other being Te Kouorēhua, in the Manaia Valley near Coromandel.
The house took many years to build, and was originally without any carvings. In 1989 carvings representing the Mataatua origins of the tribe were completed and unveiled. The genealogy represented in the carvings is as follows:
Toroa
Wairaka
Tamatea-ki-te-huatahi
Tānemoeahi
Pūkenga
Te Whetū-o-Te-Rangi.
The dining hall is named for two of Whetū’s wives, Te Atairangikaahu and Kōtare, both of whom descend from crew of the Tainui canoe.
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Private collection
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