Amo from Tamapahore Wharenui, 1896 Meihana Te Tawakura

Ko Tamapahore te whare tupuna                                                      

Ko Ngā Tuahine te whare kai

The carved meeting house Tamapahore stood as a defining symbol of Ngā Pōtiki identity and prosperity. It was commissioned in the late nineteenth century during a period of economic growth under the leadership of Wi Parera Tarakiteawa. At that time, Karikari, the principal Ngā Pōtiki settlement at the foot of Mangatawa, was thriving. Wealth from extensive sheep and cattle farming, as well as large-scale cropping that supplied colonial Tauranga, enabled Ngā Pōtiki to construct a fully carved wharenui (meeting house) unusually with stained-glass windows. The building was formally opened in October 1884, and its carvings were completed in 1896 by Meihana Te Tawakura of Ngā Pōtiki, Ngāti Awa.[1]

Two amo were positioned at the front of the wharenui, supporting the carved maihi (facing boards on the gable of the wharenui) and forming the apex of the roof. The tribes of the Mātaatua canoe are connected by a distinctive meeting house carving style. The prophet Te Kooti Arikirangi Turuki, founder of the Ringatū faith, held ceremonies in these houses, influencing the development of the Mātaatua style in new directions.

Tawakura employed steel tools, such as chisels and adzes, producing sharper, more defined surface designs than stone tools. Features of the Mātaatua style include square-form tiki with brows and mouths of equal width, mouths showing many teeth, a clearly defined neck area, and a circular knob between the brows. Figures are typically thick-bodied with rounded shoulders and hips, enriched with surface patterning but generally carved in shallow relief.[2] The manaia (stylised figure) figure at the top of the amo is usually a side view of a tiki from the hips up, with a koruru-style figure between its legs, representing continued lineage.

The surface design, known as whakairo hopara, consists of rows of haehae (parallel grooves) with niho taniwha (notched patterns) in between. These motifs are arranged in a whakarei compilation on the head, rauponga on the body, and rauru spirals on the shoulders and upper thighs. Some evidence suggests the carvings were once polychromatic, reflecting Te Kooti’s influence, where the use of colour added additional layers of meaning.[3]

During this period, Tamapahore functioned as a major cultural and political centre for the Ngāti Kāhu and Ngāti Tahuora hapū of Ngā Pōtiki. Its mana was reflected in the large-scale ceremonial gatherings it hosted. In 1887, Karikari welcomed King Tāwhiao, the second Māori King, with a retinue of 300. Contemporary accounts describe the feast in detail: 3 head of cattle, 24 pigs, 54 kits of potatoes (about 5 tons), 10 cases of biscuits, and other items such as sugar and tea.[4] Less than a decade later, in 1896, King Mahuta attended the formal completion of the Tamapahore carvings, officiated by Te Kooti, further underscoring Ngā Pōtiki’s political and whakapapa ties with the Kīngitanga.[5]

The whakairo of Tamapahore embodied ancestral narratives and established the house as a repository of Ngā Pōtiki identity. Although the original nineteenth-century building did not survive, some of the carvings have been preserved in the Tauranga Heritage Collection[6]. The cultural importance of the house was reaffirmed in 1962 with the opening of a new carved wharenui at Mangatawa, again named Tamapahore, which was later restored by Mana Thomas of Maketu in 1973[7]

Special thanks to Ngā Pōtiki, Tauranga Museum Heritage Collection and Dean Flavell, Amie Rolleston and Julie Paama-Pengelly for their research assistance and advice.

[1]  Colin Reeder, 2024; Te Ao Hou, no. 20 (December 1957), 35.

[2] David Simmons, Whakairo: Māori Tribal Art, Oxford University Press 1985, pp 137-8.

[3] personal communication Dean Flavell, 26 September, 2025.

[4] Bay of Plenty Times, 22 June 1887, 2.

[5] Ngā Pōtiki a Tamapahore Trust, “Our Marae,” ngapotiki.org.nz (accessed 2025).

[6] Ibid.

[7] Te Ao Hou, no. 20 (December 1957), 35.