Māori wharenui: a cultural and spiritual hub

What are wharenui used for?

As a hub for Māori community events, wharenui have a wide range of uses.

They are venues for hui – meetings to discuss subjects such as governance, use of resources and cultural matters – as well as wānanga (educational classes) and celebrations.

Wharenui are important for hosting guests, playing a part in pōwhiri and poroporoaki – welcoming and farewell ceremonies – and providing a space for speeches and entertainment, as well as for the community and their guests to sleep.

Although wharenui are not places of worship, Māori people often conduct sacred cermonies there. They are also used for tangihanga – traditional mourning and funeral ceremonies – with the deceased lying in state in the māhau (porch area) before burial.

Jim says tangihanga are a chance to remember not just the person who has recently died but also – through the connections provided by the wharenui – all the community’s tūpuna (ancestors).

‘Māori are very spiritual people. There's another world out there that we have connections to, and the wharenui connects us to that spiritual world.

‘We feel the ancestral people, the spirits of our ancestors, are in that house with us. When we go in there, particularly for tangihanga[…] we don't just acknowledge the death of that person, we acknowledge all the related spirits that connect to that person.

‘The wharenui embodies all those people, even though they've all gone.’

Together, these different uses of the wharenui help to build whanaungatanga – a sense of connection, kinship and belonging based on collective participation and duty.

Sharing Māori culture

Wharenui also provide an opportunity to share Māori culture with others, through educational visits by schools, local communities and tourists.

These visits may involve a pōwhiri ceremony, and a chance to learn about the stories told by the wharenui’s whakairo and other crafted elements, as well as singing, dancing and making art.

Hinemihi, the wharenui whose whakairo were brought to Clandon in 1892, was commissioned by Māori chief Āporo Te Wharekaniwha of the Ngāti Hinemihi (People of Hinemihi) hapū as both a traditional meeting house and a place to share Māori culture with visitors.

By delighting and engaging people outside the Māori community, wharenui have an important role to play in keeping Māori culture alive.

Tikanga – respecting the wharenui

Like most aspects of Māori culture, wharenui are governed by tikanga – a set of values, practices and protocols aimed at maintaining harmony and balance, which literally translates as the ‘right way’.

Wharenui tikanga respect Māori traditions, the sacred nature of the buildings and the tūpuna that are part of them.

The tikanga, how they are applied and the beliefs behind them may vary between different iwi, hapū and whānau but there are some that are quite common.

Before entering the wharenui, you must first remove your shoes. You should not take food into the wharenui. You should never sit on pillows intended for sleeping.

Because the wharenui is the embodiment of the tīpuna, and also associated with Rongomātāne, or Rongo, the god of peace, discussions inside the wharenui should always remain calm and respectful. The marae ātea outside is linked with Tūmatauenga, or Tū, the god of war, and is where disputes are traditionally settled.

The interior of the wharenui is divided into two areas by a boundary that runs lengthways from the doorway on the left-hand side of the wharenui. Guests sleep on the tara whānui (the ‘big’ side) on the right, while hosts sleep on the tara iti (the ‘little’ side) on the left.

A brief history of wharenui

Wharenui in some form have been built in the Māori homeland of Aotearoa (New Zealand) for many hundreds of years, with the oldest archaeological examples dating back to the 12th century.

These early buildings were probably wharepuni (sleeping houses) for chiefs’ families that may also have been used for community gatherings.

Although less ornate than modern wharenui, they had several common features, including a floor plan of similar proportions and a partly enclosed front porch with an entrance door on the left-hand side.

Early wharenui were built by lashing frames together with ropes using techniques adapted from traditional Māori boat-building.

European visitors

The arrival of European explorers in Aotearoa in the late-18th and early-19th centuries with steel tools and new methods of construction was likely influential in the evolution of the wharenui, allowing Māori craftspeople to create larger and more ornately carved buildings.

Welcoming European visitors, including traders and missionaries, and providing them with accommodation, may also have increased the focus on wharenui as places for communal gathering.

Some wharenui built during the later 19th century – such as Hinemihi – were created partly with the aim of hosting tourists and teaching them about Māori culture.

The structure and meaning of wharenui

Wharenui represent the body of the tīpuna they were built to honour and provide a protective space that connects the iwi, hapū or whānau to their whakapapa.

Wharenui consist of numerous structural and other elements, many of which have a strong spiritual significance along with their functional purpose.

Not every wharenui includes all of these elements and some parts may be more or less prominent or positioned differently.

The main structure

The whakairo attached to the front exterior of a wharenui are imbued with the spirit of the tīpuna.

They are usually painted in three colours: red, representing life and vitality; black, the physical world; white, purity and enlightenment.

The whakairo, and the key elements of the building’s structure, each represent different parts of the tīpuna’s body.

‘To us, it's not just a building, it actually embodies our ancestor,’ says Jim. 'As far as we're concerned, she's a living being, the parts of the building represent her body.

‘When you go into that meeting house, you go within the body of the ancestor.’

• Tekoteko: The carved figure on the rooftop in front of the house representing the tīpuna’s head.
• Koruru: A carved mask of the tīpuna’s face.
• Maihi: Barge boards that run along the roof gable denoting the tīpuna’s outstretched arms, welcoming visitors inside.
• Raparapa: The carved ends of the barge boards, representing the tīpuna’s fingers.
• Amo: Short posts or boards extending straight down from the roof that provide upright support.
• Tāhuhu: A large beam or ridge-pole running the length of the roof, representing the spine.
• Heke: Rafters, reaching down from the tāhuhu to the walls, denoting the tīpuna’s ribs.

The māhau

The māhau (porch) of a wharenui generally has a door to the left-hand side and a window on the right. Elements of the māhau include:

• Whatitoka: The doorway to the wharenui acts as a boundary between the outside world of Tū, the god of war, and the calm interior presided over by Rongo, the god of peace.
• Pare: The carved door lintel running horizontally above the whatitoka often depicted the goddess of death Hine-nui-te-Po who brought mortality to the world. In modern wharenui, this whakairo is sometimes replaced by a small sign bearing the name of the wharenui.
• Whakawae: These carved door jambs run perpendicular on either side of the whatitoka.
• Matapihi: The wharenui’s window is seen as the eye of the tīpuna. It is sometimes considered an entry point to the spiritual world. During tangihanga, the coffin of the deceased usually lies underneath the window. If the coffin is taken inside the wharenui, it is passed through the matapihi, which is reserved for the dead, while the whatitoka is used by the living.
• Paepae: The threshold beam running along the bottom of the māhau marks the boundary between the marae ātea and the sacred wharenui. The paepae also serves as a bench where hosts sit or stand to deliver formal speeches, such as during a pōwhiri.

Inside the wharenui

Because the wharenui represents the body of the tīpuna, entering it means going inside the tīpuna.

The structural and symbolic elements inside the wharenui tell the wider stories of the group’s tūpuna (ancestors) and its whakapapa.

• Poupou: These wooden posts or panels add to the framework of the wharenui. They are often carved with the figures of tūpuna descended from the community’s central tīpuna.
• Tukutuku: Also known as tuitui or arapaki, these woven panels are attached to the interior walls of a wharenui between the poupou. They can feature a variety of different patterns – often representing elements from the natural world, such as stars, fish, tears or stairways – each with their own symbolic meaning depicting aspects of the community’s whakapapa.
• Poutokomanawa: These free-standing posts inside the wharenui help to support the tāhuhu. They are often seen as representing the tīpuna’s heart – manawa means heart – but, in pushing away the ground below and the roof above, they also reference the Māori story of creation, which saw the separation of Papatuanuku (Earth Mother) from Ranginui (Sky Father).
• Kōwhaiwhai: These traditional scroll patterns may be painted – in red, black and white – on heke and poutokomanawa. Like the patterns on tukutuku, the kōwhaiwhai are often derived from nature and each have different symbolic meanings.