The Whare Whakairo
On his entering a native village and advancing on to the marae, the attention of the visitor is drawn to the most out-standing building in the place. This is a…
From: Unknown To: 1932 C.E.
Location: New Zealand
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Primitive Economics of the New Zealand Maori by Raymond Firth, 1929.
The Whare Whakairo
On his entering a native village and advancing on to the marae, the attention of the visitor is drawn to the most out-standing building in the place. This is a rectangular house with a gable roof like the others but larger and of much finer workmanship. It is also carved and ornamented in distinctive style. This is a whare whakairo, a carved house, which is the whare runanga, the public meeting-house or hall of assembly of the village people.
In the whole field of Maori material culture there is perhaps no more important object than a carved building of this kind. From the economic point of view it has distinct significance. Its planning demanded an architect of skill, and its erection required co-operation on a large scale. Even the unskilled labour needed for the hauling and setting-up of the mighty timbers for ridge-pole and central pillars demanded careful organization and supervision.
Experts in timber dressing, thatching, reed-work panelling, and carving had their part to play. At various stages of the building, again, the payment of the workers by presents involved a kind of capitalistic enterprise on the part of chief or community by the devotion of accumulated quantities of food and valuables to this end. Forethought and preliminary saving were essential factors. Economic co-operation was sometimes effected with skilled workers from other tribes.
The organization of the work might have to extend over a considerable period, as some of these houses took a long time to build. A meeting-house at Te Oriori is named "Nga Tau e Waru” (The Eight Years) because, as I was told, that period of time was taken to complete it. Still, this is rather exceptional. Work was commenced on the large house "Hotunui" in 1875, and all the parts were finished by May, 1878. The building was done by about seventy men of Ngatiawa for the owners, Ngatimaru.
Some of these houses were of great size. The building erected by Ropata Wahawaha at Wai-o-matatini, Waiapu, was 85 feet long, 30 feet broad, and 20 feet high, and according to Major Large was calculated to hold 1,500 people. The house "Matatua", carved at Whakatane by Apanui and his Ngatiawa as a gift to Taipari of Hauraki, was 75 feet long and 32 feet broad, while the ridge-pole, a massive piece of timber 16 feet from the ground, was originally supported by four pillars.
“Hotunui,” built to replace it, is 80 feet long. “Te Whai-a-te-motu,” at Ruata-huna, has a length of 76 feet, a breadth of 36 feet, and a height of 18 feet to the ridge-pole, while it is 6 feet high at the sides. The house “Rangitihi", carved by Wero, Anaha te Rahui, and others of Ngatitarawhai and Ngatipikiao, measures nearly 60 feet long by 25 feet wide and about 18 feet to the crown of the roof. The carving took between three and four years. The building of such houses, especially the erection of their massive framework, required a great amount of labour.
The whare runanga was the product of joint economic effort, realized through a complicated system of exchange of goods and services. Its wood-carvings were also the medium of expression of the highest forms of technical skill, combined with that artistic spirit displayed by the Maori in his crafts.
The building was indeed beautifully adorned. Ornate wood-carving was lavished on door jambs and lintel shield, on the window architrave, on the slabs along the inside of the verandah, on the ends of the deep barge boards, and on the posts which supported them. Rising from the apex of the gable was a finial in the form of a sculptured human figure or a head of grotesque design. The large plank of the outer threshold also bore carving.
The interior of the house was tastefully decorated. The low walls were set off by broad wooden slabs, heavily carved, alternating with finely laced reed-work panels, each in its way an expression of the highest form of Maori decorative art. The skirting board and frieze-panels, as well, were often lightly carved. The massive ridge-pole, graven or painted also, was supported by one or more pillars, each hewn from a great tree trunk. At its base each one was worked into the semblance of a human figure, almost man-high. The rafters, finally, were limned in patterned scrolls and volutes of red, white, and black.
This decorative work was not of equal quality in all districts: the work of the East Coast was in general superior to that of the West, while different tribes specialized in various details. Thus Ngapuhi were artists in raupo work for reed-panels and thatching, while Ngatiporou were renowned for their carving and rafter painting. The Arawa were noted for their carved storehouses.
Of the pataka or storehouses on piles, each village possessed a number, though only one or two, the property of chiefs, were ever elaborately carved. In such case they were highly valued. Their ornamentation was on the exterior alone, and was usually restricted to the parts around the porch. This point offers a useful comment on the social appreciation of wood-carving among the Maori. For with the exception of the owner, people rarely went into a storehouse.
Hence to be seen by all, and admired, carving had to be placed on the outside. But with the whare runanga, the meeting-house, the case was different. The constant use of it both by the village people themselves and by guests rendered it advisable to place some of the finest ornamentation in the verandah and around the interior walls. In other words, carving, though an expression of the aesthetic sense of the artist, was done with an eye to social appreciation. Hence it was only placed where it would be seen and admired to best advantage. Such an attitude was reinforced by traditional rules which specified the parts of a building appropriate for ornamentation.
The ground plan and front elevation (Figs. 2 and 2a) show the shape of the meeting-house and indicate the chief features of interest. The supporting posts for the ridge-pole varied in number according to their size and the dimensions of the house. In modem structures the projecting end of the ridge on which the barge courses are laid to form the verandah is also supported by a post, springing from the outer threshold (v. Plate VII). It is doubtful if this be an old usage. Window and door in former times were quite small, to retain warmth within the house. The fireplace, made by stones placed on edge in a rectangle, was somewhat forward of the centre of the building. The floor was of earth, left bare in the middle, but covered to both sides by a layer of grass or fern, with large mats on top for sleeping purposes.
Much etiquette pertained to one of these superior houses, especially as regards the position occupied by persons of different status. The part allotted to guests was on the right-hand side as one enters, close under the window. The chief men of the village were then opposite, also near the front of the house. The chief of highest rank had his own sleeping place, near the centre pillar, and this could not be occupied or even touched by lesser persons. To do so was a great insult to him. Moreover, no food might be brought into the house, as this was destructive to its tapu (sacredness) and that of the people within.
In modern times these customs have become weakened, some elements being still retained while others are no longer observed. Thus at Matatua in 1924, a party of visiting relatives from Ruatoki, distant some forty miles, who had come as an uhunga or mourning party after the death of Te Pouwhare, were being entertained by the local people in ''Te Whai-a-Te-Motu”, the great house there. When our party entered the building, the guests were rechning, in accordance with ancient usage, on mats under the window to the right of the door. But contrary to all the canons of olden time, a meal was served to them in the house on a long strip of white cloth unrolled on the floor to serve as a cover. Yet, despite this disregard of ancient rules, we visitors had to pay a heavy fine—namely, threepence per person—for going inside with our boots on, a proceeding derogatory to the tapu of the building! A pile of discarded footwear at the door testified to the respect of the faithful for their Maori sanctuary.
Firth, Raymond. Primitive Economics of the New Zealand Maori. George Routledge & Sons, 1929.
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