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House with the Golden Eyes
Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito meeting house has been sitting more than 18,000km away from home since the 1890s. Today its return seems the closest it has been since it left New Zealand shores.
Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito meeting house has been sitting more than 18,000km away from home since the 1890s. Today its return seems the closest it has been since it left New Zealand shores.
A whare is not a whare without its people.
This is why descendants of the sacred Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito meeting house have been working hard for many years to have the taonga returned home to Rotorua.
Hinemihi meeting house has been sitting more than 18,000km away from home since the 1890s – and today its return seems the closest it has been since it left New Zealand shores.
The historic meeting house was carved by Master Carver Wero Tāroi and his young apprentice, Tene Waitere, for Aporo Te Wharekaniwha who was a leader of the Tūhourangi hapū, Ngāti Hinemihi. It took more than a year to build and when the Tarawera eruption took hold on June 10 1886, Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito safely sheltered dozens of her people. Without her, generations that followed may not exist today.
After the violent eruption, Hinemihi meeting house lay deep in hardened mud at Te Wairoa, close to the shore at Lake Tarawera near Rotorua.
After the violent eruption, Hinemihi meeting house lay deep in hardened mud at Te Wairoa, close to the shore at Lake Tarawera near Rotorua.
William Onslow, who was the Governor General of New Zealand between 1889 and 1892, bought Hinemihi for 50 pounds and took it back to his family estate in Clandon Park in the Greater London county of Surrey, where it has stood since the 1890s. Onslow, who was keen on Māori culture, wanted a keepsake of his time in New Zealand and Hinemihi was shipped to England.
For decades since then, the uri (descendants) of Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito meeting house have made efforts to have her returned to her people. The response from the National Trust UK, which has been caring for Hinemihi since the 1950s, has always been no.
That is until now – with the National Trust UK agreeing in principle to a carving exchange which will see her returned to her people, the Ngāti Hinemihi of Rotorua.
This story, including the history of the whare tupuna Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito and the efforts to bring her home, is being told in a new documentary currently screening on Māori Television. The documentary, called Hinemihi – House with the Golden Eyes is produced and directed by Toby Mills and Rawiri Tapiata.
The documentary uses AI to subtly and tactfully bring historic photographs to life, which Rawiri says did not move forward without the full support of the whānau of those depicted in the imagery.
“The whānau were all on board,” he says.
Rawiri, whose whakapapa connections are to Tūhourangi, became involved in the documentary after the iwi put his name forward to work with Toby. He calls the documentary a “journey of recovery” and says it is “a huge honour and a huge privilege to be trusted with this story of national significance”.
“It’s an incredible story . . . Hinemihi literally saved people’s lives,” Rawiri says.
“One of the main messages is around repatriation.”
According to the documentary, the National Trust UK has never returned artefacts back to the lands of the people they came from, making the carving exchange and the impending return of Hinemihi a major milestone.
“It’s an incredible story… Hinemihi literally saved people’s lives. One of the main messages is around repatriation.”
“I feel proud to be Tūhourangi,” he says.
In 2019 the National Trust agreed in principle for the original historic carvings of Hinemihi to return to her home. In exchange, a new meeting house will be built at Clandon with carvings from expert Māori carvers, allowing the important cultural connection between New Zealand and the UK to continue. In 2022, the Hinemihi Exchange Project was founded, which is a three way partnership between Te Maru o Hinemihi, The National Trust and Ngā Kohinga Whakairo o Hinemihi Charitable Trust.
“The new whare is being carved as we speak,” Rawiri says.
Rangitihi Pene is the Chairman of Ngā Kohinga Whakairo o Hinemihi, mandated by Ngāti Hinemihi to interact and bring back the carvings. He led the 2019, 2022, 2024, and 2025 delegations to London, to convince the National Trust UK, to agree-in-principle to return the Hinemihi carvings.
He says all of Ngāti Hinemihi are delighted the return is progressing and believes the documentary will help people understand the efforts being undertaken to make it happen.
“I’m in favour of our people understanding the journey we’ve been on. By the time it finishes it’ll be nearly 10 years,” Rangitihi says.
The concept of the exchange came from Anthony Hoete, and those leading the project now are Rangitihi, project manager Ruakiri Fairhall, whose background is extensive in governance, te reo Māori revitalisation, haka, and iwi leadership, and Master Carver Colin Tihi. During the documentary Ruakiri says “a whare is not a whare without its people”, so it’s no surprise he’s doing his part to bring Hinemihi home.
“We started with just a hope that we could intervene because initially back in 2018 Heritage New Zealand didn’t want us to interact with National Trust England, they wanted to do it at their level,” Rangitihi says.
After the National Trust last declined the request for the return of Hinemihi, he wanted to intervene and put their case to the Trust directly. He took advice from someone on the ground in London and asked if a face-to-face conversation would make it worse and when their advisor said no, they made the trip.
“We made a decision to intervene to see if we can change their minds,” he says.
“We went over and we met all the main people and spent a week before putting our case before two of the 12 trustees for National Trust and they gave us a positive answer, that was about three months later,” he says.
This is the closest Hinemihi has come to being returned home to Rotorua and Rangitihi says a planned visit by the National Trust to Rotorua in November is another positive milestone.
“They’ve never come out before, it’s a signal coming to the end of the journey now.”
He’s expecting Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito to be home in early 2028.
To watch Hinemihi – House with the Golden Eyes go to Whakaata Māori at www.maoriplus.co.nz. This is just the first part of this story – Rawiri says there will be a follow-up release, which will document the monumental return of Hinemihi to her people and the journey in the lead up. The release date for part two is not yet known but Rawiri says given the historic significance of this journey, he expects it to be a story that will be important well into the future.
“I’d like to think 100 years from now it [the documentary] will be more relevant or more valuable than it is now.”
maoriplus.co.nz
