A Taniwha, a Tuna, and Tangaroa Dwelling in a Spa - MArch(Prof ...

A TANIWHA, A TUNA AND TANGAROA DWELLING IN A SPA
Briefing Document, May 22 2013.
Harriet Piki Mildon King | Supervisor: Bill Mckay

Alexander Turnbull Library

Topic Description
The Waikato River spans 425km from the Tongariro River system to Port Waikato. The Waikato can
be thought of as the bloodstream for both Papatuanuku (mother earth) and the life of the people who
belong to the river. To these people (the decedents of Tainui Waka and Ngati Tuwharetoa) the river was
once their state highway one;; a source of food, transport, and communications and as a resting place
of the spirits. The healthier and more plentiful it is, the more mana the Iwi has. The Waikato River and
its associated tributaries are also home to tuna (eels) who have roamed New Zealand rivers since the
Miocene (23 million years ago) . Tuna, land and water are considered Taonga (treasures) that we, as
Guardians, have been endowed to protect. When the Waikato River is altered its Mauri (life force) is
weakened and this has an adverse effect on local Maori wellbeing. Political and cultural changes over
the last century have seen the look and use of the Waikato River alter drastically. The urban realities we
face today have rearranged the way we use and perceive the river. The dwindling and endangered Tuna
population attests to that fact that we have turned our backs against the past blinding us from moving
forward into the future.
Waikato-taniwha-rau
He piko, he taniwha
He piko, he taniwha.
Waikato of a hundred taniwha
At every bend a taniwha can be found.
Whakatauki (proverbs) are an important part of Maori culture;; they are a poetic form of the Maori
language often merging historical events, or holistic perspectives with underlying messages which are
lay at each bend along the Waikato River. Taniwha are believed to dwell at each bend to protect the
people and the land from marauding tribes and shortcomings. Taniwha are Kaitiaki (guardian spirits)
left behind by a deceased ancestor to protect sacred places. Each bend on the Waikato River is densely
layered in a rich cultural and political past.
Peppered along the Waikato are Waahi Tapu (sacred sites). Some of these sites are well known and re-
where the New Zealand Transport Association alongside Tainui iwi are currently constructing a bypass
gotten
and concealed by concrete, metal, tarseal, water for hydroelectric dams and other infrastructural
materials. Orakei Korako is a prime example as a site along the Waikato whose darkened history and
Waahi Tapu have been concealed.
and geothermal power opportunities. As a result the largest manmade lake along the Waikato River
including the worlds largest and displaced the two families who had been living at Orakei Korako for
and a ride to Taupo to establish their new lives. They lost their Turangawaewae – their place to stand.
The 425 km route along the Waikato River is the site of this Architectural thesis. When considering
the site without applying a conventional scale the river can be viewed as a living museum. Its waters,
banks, estuaries, bed, soil, plants, animals and air all hold a history of the landscapes past. Indigenous
tional.
The Architecture of a museum is designed for Nga Taonga Tuku Iho (treasures of the past) to
reside in. Museums offer shelter, protection
and conservation to these objects, slowing down their decay and preserving them for the visitor to
examine, view and realise the milieu in which these objects originated.
In conjunction with Geoff Parks critique on the visitor and Deidre Browns position on architecture
as landscape and building as garment, this thesis will explore possible typologies and posit an autochthonous
museum typology along the Waikato River. The methodology of this thesis will draw,
explore and model values and lessons learnt from the anecdotes and traditions of these bends to
inform a New Zealand Maori architecture that will acknowledge the past and progress into the future
to ecologically sustain and nurture the environment for our mokopuna (future generation).
-

‘Aladins Cave’ at Orakei Korako - Photograph March 6 2013

Design Project
the Waikato River through the built environment along its river banks. This thesis is a critique on the
visitor and the visitor centre and questions why do we go inside to learn about the outside? The initial
design research phase involved a number of site visits to different parts of the Waikato River from
the Tongariro National park to Port Waikato. On each site visit I collected an object from the natural
environment of the site;; pumice, scoria, black iron sand, koura skelleton etc. These objects serve as
memory markers for myself and remind me of the essence of the site. I then made small Taonga boxes
from its natural environment the visitor is unable to obtain a sense of place or understand the origins
of these objects when viewing them housed inside my boxes within my studio. Instead of desgining a
singular monumental visitor centre, the architectural outcome of this thesis will propose a series of fol-
understanding of place, material and space.
Critical Question for the Thesis
op
a methodology to reveal and conserve Nga Taonga Tuku Iho (treasures of the past) of the Waikato
River and can we construct an appropriate architecture to house, conserve and protect them? Do Nga
Taonga Tuku Iho need protecting from weathering, decay, burial and the curious visitor?
Key References and Precedents
Geoff Parks (writer)
Judy Watson (artist)
Linda Tuhiwai Smith (anthropologist)
Tim Wigmore (artist)
Merata Kawharu
Major Architectural and Architectonic Ideas to be investigated
-Nga Taonga Tuku Iho – treasures of the past.
-Non Western models of museums.
-Protection of Taonga in New Zealand.
-Spa architecture.
-Virtual Taonga.
-Scale

Site Description
The bends of the Waikato River, its associated tributaries and the geothermal and volcanic landscape it
resides on.
1. MIGHTY RIVER POWER [MRP]
owned enterprise that is a major competitor in the New Zealand electricity market providing approxi-
-
geothermal stations currently being built.
2. TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK
river from Tongariro through Lake Taupo and along the Waikato to Mt Taupiri was carved by the Path
the landscape and created.
3. TAPUAEHARURU REDOUBT – TAUPO: Perched on a cliff overlooking the start of the
Waikato River on the Tongariro domain at 23 Storey Place sits Taphuaeharuru Redoubt. The redoubt was
the deed that gifted Tongariro National Park to the people of New Zealand so that their tapu might be
as a Kohanga reo (language nest). The building has been empty for 5 years now. Both the courthouse and
4. ORAKEI KORAKO & RELATED GEOTHERMAL LANDS* IN THE REGION
steaming water cascading down terraces into the windy green Waikato River. It has always been occupied
by the government with both hydro and geothermal opportunities. As a result the largest manmade lake
at Orakei Korako for generations. In exchange for their homes, lands and way of living these families
– their place to stand.
*Rotorua Sanatorium. Thermal water was used by Balneologists (spa doctors) for their supposed healing
properties around the turn of the twentieth century. The original baths have been preserved and are
displayed in their original places at the Rotorua museum in the Government gardens. Tohunga (Maori
skin diseases.
5. PORT WAIKATO: When the Tainui canoe arrived just off the mouth of the river its name
6. DEEP OCEANING CAVES OFF THE COAST OF TONGA:
migrate here to spawn and die.
.

Plan of Work for Semester 1
Week 1 Research continued from proposal hand in.
Read and wrote.
- Orakei Korako ($34 boat trip across the river)
- Opepe Redoubt – Napier Taupo road.
Week 2 Started Site plan of Waikato River from Tongariro
(pictured right)
-Port Waikato (Photographed and collected
sand and driftwood.)
Made conceptual memory colourful clay
models of colours from Orakei Korako.
(pictured below)

Week 3 Worked on Milestone 3 – thesis proposal.
ecologies, electricity.

Week 4
Read and wrote for literature review.

Week 5 Worked on literature review. (Read and wrote)

Week 6
photographs of interest to me.
writing on the Waikato River power system in relation to Waikato Maori Iwi and found that Evelyn Stokes had written a full and comprehensive
report in association with the local iwi about the Ohaaki Power Station and the Ohaaki Marae

Week 7
Week 8 Design Development
Bought x3 Whau Tree off the internet from native plant store.
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11 Talk bill, took work into school.
Tomorrow: Midyear design crit
Cover page: Maori Houses and Food Stores; W.J Phillipps, 1952.

pumice from lake taupo w coloured clay .

Kau ki matanuku
Kau ki Matarangi;;
Kau ki tenei whenua,
Mau e kai to Manawa o tauhou!
I arrive where unknown earth is under my feet,
I arrive where a new sky is above me;;
I arrive at this land, a resting place for me;;
O spirit of the earth! The stranger humbly
Offers his heart as food for you!

literature/artist/achitecture
review:
1. Geoff Parks - Theatre Country: Essays on Landscapes and whenua / The ecology of the visit,
2006.
2. O.N Gillespie - Orakei Korako: "The Place of Adorning":New Zealands
Newest Wonder land. The New Zealand Railway Magazine, 1938.
3. James Cowan - ORAKEI KORAKO: Scenes and Stories in a Waikato Wonder Valley : The New
Zealand Railways Magazine, 1929.
4. Scotty Morrison-Te Marae Investigates: Land taken in Orakei Korako for the Ohakuri Dam.
Documentary, 2012.
5. Anne Salmond - Hui, 1975.
6. Shane Cotton - Tuna Town Dreaming Moerewa - Arcrylic on canvas, 1979, 2001.
7. Bing Dawe -Apportion - Eels with Trap, 1997, mixed media.
8. Fiona Connor - Mount Gabriel, Ruby and Ash. Hopkinson Cundy Gallery/Mangare Maunga,2012.
9.John Hejduk -Mask of Medusa : Works 1947-1983
10. Judy Watson - Blood Language, 2009.
11. Tim Wigmore -Precious Cargo (exhibition-sculpture/carving) Wellington City Gallery, April
2013.
12. Jillian Wallis - From Bus Driver Dreaming to Tjukurpa - the Uluru Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre.
IDEA Journal 2005.
13. Dr Marama Muru Lanning - Who Owns the Water? Ingenio Post Graduate Magazine, May
2013.
14. Bill Mckay and Antonia Walmley - Pacific Space: The pacific conception of Building.

GEOFF PARKS
THEATRE COUNTRY: ESSAYS ON LANDSCAPES AND WHENUA.
THE ECOLOGY OF THE VISIT, 2006
A scenic wonder
A favourite resort
A romantic’s landscape (9)
The Ecology of the Visit is an ecologically, culturally, historically and politically loaded text that discusses the notion of the visitor
in New Zealand and the affect the visitor has had on the landscape. It discusses how the landscape has changed for both the individ-
into and on New Zealand which provides an excellent base for further research into historic accounts on particular sites along the
illustrates how the shags, a metonym he uses to discuss the effects of sovereignty in New Zealand, that were once an integral part of
the landscape and Maori life were now gone in certain areas because of the introduction of trout and white water rafting and other
Maori life and also highlights the adverse effects it has had on the ecosystem. Although his essay focuses on the Tuhoe region, the
principles and meaning of what he is talking about is transferrable to my site along the Waikato River for the people of the Waikato.

O.N. GILLESPIE
ORAKEI-KORAKO: “THE PLACE OF ADORNING”: NEW ZEALANDS NEWEST WONDERLAND.
THE NEW ZEALAND RAILWAY MAGAZINE, 1938
In the morning of the world the gay gods of the Polynesian pantheon has a high old time. After mighty Tane had rent apart Rangi
water and laid out courses for rushing rivers, made glaciers and snowy caps for towering peaks and packed them all close together.
But when it came to the thermal regions they gave their wildest fancies full play. They left the primal engines that forge a world
in throbbing action. They left a litter of boiling springs, sprouting geysers, smoking terraces, and the whole blazing profusion of
they had set their fantastic handiwork. Still, he wanted a more scintillating display. He wanted a prodigal show of hues and tints, a
riot of rich colour, a chromatic orgy. In this mood, he took a rainbow, broke it into its thousand colour gems, splashed them all over
a steaming valley of the green Waikato River and the place became Orakei Korako.
In this poetic excerpt Gillespie paints a picture by describing the physical and mythological qualities of Orakei Korako before it was
-
of the journey into Orakei Korako . A site visit at the start of March proved that these qualities still exist although they are harder to
Whakatauki because each picture frames the landscape and ecologies the taniwha are protecting.
10. O.N. Gillespie, “Orakei-Korako, The Place of Adorning: New Zealand’s Newest Wonderland,” The New Zealand Railways magazine 13, no.2 (1938): 31
11. Ibid., 31

JAMES COWAN
ORAKEI-KORAKO: SCENES AND STORIES IN A WAIKATO WONDER VALLEY
THE NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS MAGAZINE, 1929.
used the spaces of the natural landscape to provide them shelter mentally and physically.
The principal clear warm bathing pool is the place from which Orakei-Korako derives its name, which means the place of adorning;;
it was the looking glass water at which the people made themselves pretty for the parade, the open air “making up” room in fact.
resorted to comb and oil their hair and deck it with feathers, and to paint their faces with red ochre (kokowai) and dance otherwise
beautify themselves for social gathering or war dance.
It is still in its wild state everywhere here;; no bridge spans the great river, no hotel and no smartly decorative bath-houses jar on our
of civilised development.
This thesis will explore the relationship between landscape and the built environment. Physical shelter is surrogate to both mental
image of what was and what could have been here.
12. James Cowan, “Orakei-Korako, Scenes and Stories in a Waikato Wonder Valley,” The New Zealand Railways magazine 4, no.5 (1929): 25.
13. Ibid., 25.

SCOTTY MORRISON
TE MARAE INVESTIGATES: LAND TAKEN IN ORAKEI KORAKO FOR THE OHAKURI HYDRODAM
DOCUMENTARY, 2012.
with both hydro and geothermal opportunities. As a result the largest manmade lake along the river was built. The construction of the
had been living on the river at Orakei Korako for generations. In exchange for their homes, lands and way of living these families
tary
sheds light on a history on a part of the river that is more commonly known as a tourist destination.
Orakei Korako for what we have lost we still wonder if we still ever be able to be part of the land, the whole family, the feeling – tragedy,
sorrow. And now our parents have passed on. We carry those deep emotions, so are our children… Generations of my people
lived on this land… We were learning a lot of things going out with mum and dad eeling. Mum would make a beading with an old
blanket and we use to sit in the fern to be comfortable. Everything we needed was at our doorstep. Behind our house were different
pools for cleaning pigs, washing clothes… My dad did up an area for the tourists to visit. He made neat tracks up to the pools for
them which were quite nice to visit. In 1958 my dad was told that the old homestead was going to be damned and they were going to
country. The most saddest thing for my father was when he was asked to hop on the ministry of works truck that was bringing him to
compensation and a piece of land in Taupo on a hillside where the land wasn’t even stable… [So for] 7 years they lived in a ministry
of works house until their lease ran out and they were forced to move out. It was a sad case. My dad became a geriatric case. And
my mum, a well-respected kuia, turned to the drink. It was having to leave the old homestead…having to leave the old livelihood
is a lodge there now and I do not know who owns it. I would call that injustice. Where my parents who belonged to the land had to
move out. And now we have no papakaianga. It’s not about the money. It’s about their Turangawaewae on the lands that once was
their grandparents and are no longer controlled by us anymore. I often think are we still part of Orakei Korako. Would we ever be
able to get it back?
The interviewee, Rangimarie Ngamotu, highlights alcoholism, poverty and loss of identity as the major effects on her family as a
over and forgotten. It will allow me to consider an architecture sensitive to a story.
14. Scotty Morrison, Land Taken in Orakei Korako for the Ohakuri Hydro Power Scheme. Documentary by Te Marae Investigates. New Zealand: TVNZ, 2012.

DAME ANNE SALMOND
HUI, 1975.
-
Taniwha as a legitimate part of its spiritual history when considering the site.
to be taught at training colleges and universities, however it was too recent to see whether the trend had any widespread effects.
under Dr. Tamati Reedy due to the success and rapid growth of the Kohanga reo. ‘It has been said that Kohanga Reo has been the sig-
environment that enable and enhance sustained learning environments? An investigation into the way architecture could speak to us

SHANE COTTON
TUNATOWN DREAMING MOEREWA 1979, 2001, ARCRYLIC ON CANVAS 700 X 1000mm.
Moerewa has a very interesting history. The population grew from the relocation of Taitokerau-wide Maori who had become landless
by the Second World War. They were moved into abandoned American transit huts and the settlement became known as ‘Tuna
-
culture and violence.
-

BING DAWE
APPORTION – EELS WITH TRAP, 1997, MIXED MEDIA.
of using Tuna as a metaphor for the greater issues surrounding Maori-Pakeha land relations and sustainability. Tuna hold a physical
and mythical link to our past which could provide lessons to create a better future for the Waikato people whilst educating on the
past and informing a better future.
The greatest mystery surrounding Tuna is their migration patterns to and from Tonga where they swim to spawn and die. No one
knows why they go there but when they do it is as if they turn into the mythical taniwha as we can only hypothesise why or where
exactly it is in these deep oceanic caves they go.
shtml (image)
dawe
23. Ibid,.

FIONA CONNOR
1. MOUNT GARBIEL, RUBY AND ASH. 190 WALLACE ROAD, MANGARE. 2012
2. MOUNT GABRIEL, RUBY AND ASH. 1 CROSS STREET, NEWTON, HOPKINSON CUNDY GALLERY, 2012.
-
-
This installation is of precedence to my research as it explores architectural typologies that exist within our national parks and how
these effect our perception of the place, how we respond to that space and how we dwell in that space. Instead of a visitor center that
discusses a place, these object direct and guide you through a space to obtain your own sense of place.

JOHN HEJDUK
MASK OF MEDUSA: WORKS 1947-1983
Medusa
The pain at the roots
You horror comes
When the serpents sleep
It is then
That they become glazed
In salt
It is then too
That your mouth and eyes
The Maori language is poetic. Whakatauki are Whakatauki (proverbs) are an important part of Maori culture;; they are a poetic form
of the Maori language often merging historical events, or holistic perspectives with underlying messages which are extremely in-
poetically driven to create architectonic environments.

JUDY WATSON
BLOOD LANGUAGE, 2009.
I often deal with concealed histories, revealing them and removing the whitewash .
tories
by means of painting and sculpting. In particular her work focuses on water and how water resonates with her people. On her
work Watson says that ‘somehow water forces us to go deeper than familiar adversarial positions and contemplate what we really
methodologies I will attempt to clarify the history the waters of the Waikato hold for the people of the River.

TIM WIGMORE
PRECIOUS CARGO, 16/2/13-21/04/12
WELLINGTON CITY GALLERY.
between the vessels and the objects they contain. Wigmore has gone around the country and asked six artists and craftspeople to
‘Wigmore is interested in the way these vessels respond to the Taonga they contain and their ability to be viewed as art objects in
tween
people, cultures, objects and spaces.
along the Waikato holding a collected Taonga from each site.

Jillian Walliss
From Bus Driver Dreaming to Tjukurpa – the Uluru Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre.
is of a museum space in a national park and why go inside to understand what is outside. The cultural centre allows tourists to learn
about Anangu understandings of place by having guided tours through narrative of guided tours through the landscape and interpretations
in situ on the site.
This thesis explores the similar notion of questioning the validity the visitor centre as one building which educates the visitor on
having one building to represent the Waikato River, the Waikato River itself will be viewed as the visitor centre and small structures
tapu (sacred sites).
Dr Marama Muru Lanning
Who Owns the Water?
Marama Muru Lannings research is of great help and relevance to this thesis as it examines the people of the Waikato river and their
historical relationship with it. She takes an indigenous methodological approach in her studies and is able to detach herself from the
She states that the Waikato river is her tupuna awa – her ancestor. This relationship her and her people have with the river dispels
nations people along the river, as its Kaitiaki (guardian).
depth and temperature affect the life in the river, and the activities on the river. If you sell those dams you are in effect selling rights
to control and use the water, and to affect its properties in many ways.” (37)
Bill McKay and Antonia Walmsley
scape
that is not architecture as it is understood in the west. Instead it suggests a new understanding of architecture more appropriate
On discussing the whare raupo they demonstrate the weaving techniques used to construct it and how the walls were responsive to
tion
of the va as a samoan concept of Polynesian space is used to demonstrate the mediation between the two worlds of interior and
landscape. And on discussing the meeting house they talk about it as representing a living ancestor. All three types discuss building
as garment and the body.
showcase the landscape. As Jillian Wallis posits – why explore what is outside inside?

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barlow, Cleve. Tikanga Whakaro, Key concepts in Maori Culture. Australia: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Brown, Deidre. “Ko to ringa ki nga rakau a te Pakeha”: Virtual Taonga, Maori, and Museums.” New Zealand Sociology 22, no. 1 (2006): 27-
48.
“Bing Dawe, Apportion-Eels with Trap, 1997”, University of Canterbury, accessed March 22, 2013, http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/sculpture/
sculptures/eel.shtml
“Bing Dawe”, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki, accessed March 22, 2013, http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/the-collection/browse-artists/993/bing-dawe
Coldicutt, Nick. It hurts to lye #2. 2012. Wooden sculpture and carving. Waitakaruru Sculpture park, Hamilton.
Gillespie, O.N. “Orakei Korako, The Place of Adoring: New Zealand’s newest wonderland.” The New Zealand Railways Magazine, 13, no.2
(1938): 32-36.
Cowan, James. “Orakei-Korako, Scenes and Stories in a Waikato Wonder Valley,” The New Zealand Railways Magazine, 4, no.5 (1929): 25-30.
“Exhibition Preview,” Ocula, accessed April 4, 2013, http://ocula.com/art-exhibitions/mount-gabriel-ruby-and-ash/
Hau’ofa, Epili. “Our Sea of Islands”, A New Oceania: Rediscovering Our Sea of Islands, Suva, Fiji: The University of the South Pacific, 1993.
2-16
Hejduk, John. Mask Of Medusa. New York: Rizzoli, 1985.
Lanning, Marama. “Tupuna Awa and Te Awa Tupuna: An anthropological study of competing discourses and claims of ownership to the
Waikato River.” Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology, the University of Auckland, 2010.
Locke, E. (1960). Place of Adorning. Wellington
Mckay, Bill and Antonia Walmsley. “Pacific Space: The Pacific Conception of Building”, IDEA (2005): 61-71.
Morrison, Scotty. Land Taken in Orakei Korako for the Ohakuri Hydro Power Scheme. Documentary. Te Marae Investigates. New Zealand:
TVNZ, 2012.
Parks, Geoff. Theatre Country: Essays on Landscapes and Whenua: The Ecology of the Visit.. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2006.
Salmond, Anne. Hui. London: A.H. & A.W. Reed Ltd, 1975.
“Scenery Preservation Amendment 1933, No. 18.” Accessed March 27, 2013. http://www.enzs.auckland.ac.nz/docs/1933/1933A18.pdf
“The Sculpture Park”, Waikato Sculpture Trust, accessed March 30, 2013, http://www.sculpturepark.co.nz/exhibitions/summer-utopia-into-dystopia/sculptures/it-hurts-to-lye-once-and-twice-untitled-1-2-3
Tim Wigmore. Precious Cargo. 2012. Wooden Sculpture and Carving. City Gallery, Wellington.
Watson, Judy, and Louise Martin-Chew. Blood Language. Australia: The Miegunyah Press. 2009.
Wilford, Judy. “Who owns the water”, Ingenio Autumn, (2013): 7-8.
Witchell, Diana. “An Interview with Dame Anne Salmond”, New Zealand Listener, accessed March 30, 2013, http://www.listener.co.nz/current-affairs/dame-anne-salmond-interview/
W. J. Phillipps, Maori Houses and Food Stores. Wellington: Government Printer, 1952.

GLOSSARY
Tuna
Eel
Taniwha
Water Denizen/Mythical Creature
Tangaroa
God of rivers, lakes and sea
Papatuanuku
God of earth
Tainui
Upper Waikato Iwi and a waka
Waka
Canoe
Ngati Tuwharetoa
Lower Waikato Iwi
Mana Prestige – gained over time, born with it. (Hard to define in English)
Iwi
Region/Territory
Taonga
Treasure
Mauri
Life force
Whakatauki
Proverb
Kaitiaki
Guardian
Waahi Tapu
Sacred Place
Turangawaewae
Place to stand
Nga Taonga Tuku Iho Treasures of the past
Mokopuna
Future generation
Pataka
Store house
Tapu
Sacred
Tohunga
Priest
Waikato
Wai=Water, Kato=Pull. (River.)
Awa
River

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