Te Tākinga, pātaka (food storehouse), c1850
Acknowledgements
Copyright Reproduced courtesy of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Creator
Te Hāreti Te Whanarere, artist, c1850
Thomas Herberley, designer, 1930s
Identifiers
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa number ME015723
TLF resource R3687
Source
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, http://www.tepapa.govt.nz
Description
This is an elaborately carved pātaka, or food storehouse, of the Māori tribe Ngāti Pikiao. Known as Te
Tākinga, after the ancestor on the tekoteko (the carved figure on the gable), the front was carved by
Te Hāreti Te Whanarere of Ngāti Mākino (Lake Rotoiti, Bay of Plenty, east coast of the North Island of
New Zealand) around 1850 and presented to the Colonial Museum (Museum of New Zealand Te
Papa Tongarewa's predecessor) in 1906. The sides, back and supporting piles were carved in the
early 1930s by Thomas Heberley (Te Āti Awa tribe) for the Colonial Museum. Constructed from tōtara
('Podocarpus totara'), a New Zealand native tree, Te Tākinga has a raupō (reed) roof with pāua-shell
and toroa (albatross) feathers adding extra detail. The pātaka stands on five poles, three of which are
carved. It measures 5.5 m x 6.04 m x 6.5 m.
Educational value
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This asset is an example of a taonga (treasure) that also illustrates traditional Māori day-today life - a pātaka was a practical solution to storing food in a way that protected it from pests;
they were often elaborately carved to reflect the importance of hospitality and the mana
(prestige) of the owners.
It shows an artefact whose history illustrates some aspects of Māori custom and social
interaction - this pātaka was the scene of an illicit meeting between Te Hāreti and the wife of
the Māori leader Te Pōkiha Taranui; after a taua muru (retaliatory raiding party), the pātaka
was given to Te Pōkiha Taranui.
It is an example of the appropriation of Māori taonga (Māori treasures) by Pākehā
(Europeans) in the latter decades of the 19th century - in 1886, the pātaka was purchased by
Gilbert Mair for his brother-in-law, the naturalist Walter Buller, who took it to the Colonial and
Indian Exhibition in London in 1886; Buller later re-erected it at his estate on Lake Papaitonga
near Levin (southern half of the North Island of New Zealand), before donating his entire Māori
collection to the Colonial Museum.
It illustrates the work of two master carvers, Te Hāreti Te Whanarere and Thomas Heberley the carving occurred in two periods (1850s and 1930s) and was executed by carvers from two
iwi (tribes).
© Curriculum Corporation and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2006, except where
indicated under Acknowledgements
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