The house with the 'Golden Eyes'
For visitors at Clandon Park today, Hinemihi is a curious looking wooden building on a lawn standing opposite the Palladian-style mansion. Few know about her history or her significance, but we hope to change this in the future. Many tales are told about Hinemihi's past, but here are just some of those stories.
In 1872 the small North Island settlement of Te Wairoa, in a volcanic region known as the Hot Lakes District, was an established tourism centre. Here Victorian tourists could experience native Maori culture, witness performances of the famous ‘posture dance’ known as the ‘haka’ – and in the 1880's could spend the night in one of two wooden hotels.
© Charles Pullman / Hinemihi Collection
Hinemihi’s construction began in 1880. She was commissioned and paid for by Chief Aporo Wharekaniwha, head of the Ngati Hinemihi sub-tribe (hapu) of the Te Arawa Maori confederation, working closely with another tribal chief, Wi Kepa Rangipuawhe of the Tuharangi sub-tribe. Hinemihi was planned as a meeting house for both sub tribes, a public place where important issues were discussed, genealogies affirmed, relationships confirmed, births and marriages celebrated and the dead mourned. She would also be used to entertain visiting tourists interested in watching cultural performances.
Aporo named his meeting house “Hinemihi” after a noted female ancestress who lived in the Hot Lakes. Hinemihi was a descendent of Ngatoroirangi, priest of the Te Arawa canoe that brought original members of the tribe to New Zealand (Aotearoa) during the great Pacific migration over 1,000 years before.
Few meeting houses bear female names, but Hinemihi was an exceptional woman, famous for keeping the company of a giant lizard (taniwha), as both a protector (kaitiaki) and pet (mokai).
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Aporo, Wero and Tene
Two Ngati Tarawhai carvers (tohunga whakairo), Wero Taroi and Tene Waitere, were comissioned by Aporo to carve and build Hinemihi from locally grown totora wood. Neither man could read or write, but both men are now regarded as being among the great Maori carvers whose work is known today.
Wero and Tene's carvings on Hinemihi represent ancestors from tribal history and by including them in the meeting house, they were providing a place where their spirits could dwell and protect their descendents.
As a gesture towards his status as a chief and the wealth he had generated from Te Wairoa’s tourism business, Aporo added a final flourish to Hinemihi. Instead of using traditional paua (Haliotis iris) shells to depict the eyes on carved figures outside and inside the meeting house, he attached gold sovereigns and half sovereigns.
© James McDonald / Hinemihi Collection
The meeting house was completed in March 1881 when Aporo named his meeting house Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito (Hinemihi of the old world). To local non-Maori and Te Wairoa’s visitors, the new meeting house became known as "Hinemihi of the golden eyes."
Aporo charged visitors one shilling to step inside the meeting house and £1,10s.0d to witness an organised performance of the haka, viewed from long wooden benches stretched along the length of the building.
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10 June 1886
On 10 June 1886, Mt. Tarawera erupted without warning and rained red hot ejecta, magma, ash and mud down on Te Wairoa. The eruption claimed the lives of 153 people.
People found shelter in Hinemihi and survived that terrible night. Among them was the young carver, Tene Waitere and his family. The long tourist benches inside Hinemihi were used to prop up the meeting house’s sagging roof.
The scale of the devastation forced the remaining population of Te Wairoa to leave their homes. Ngati Hinemihi and Tuharangi people re-settled in nearby Rotorua, which was largely undamaged by the eruption.
After the eruption, Hinemihi was described as neglected and abandoned, her walls buried up to the broken roof and layered with volcanic debris. Within days some sections were removed and at least three large carvings were taken or lost including pieces from around the door (pare and whakawae) and windows (korupe).
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