Towards meaningful reconciliation: Te Whare Hononga

A customer centre and training and exhibition area, the 198m² venture fashioned a part of the Authorities’s $5-million contribution in direction of the cathedral’s $20-million earthquake strengthening.

Architect Hugh Tennent says the kaupapa of the venture is one in every of reconciliation: the uplifting of tangata whenua on the whole web site. The patterning and construction of the whare is designed to mirror the 2 peoples and this intention of reconciliation.

The whare tells the story of Ngāti te Whiti hapū and its interplay with St Mary’s, the place British forces had been garrisoned in the course of the Taranaki wars (1860–1861).

The design of the timber diagrid construction displays its identify — the home that binds, brings or weaves collectively — with each exterior and inside references to a woven kete, a kono or meals basket and the waharua kopito taniko patterning representing the change that happens when peoples or occasions cross.

Heritage Taranaki secretary Rob Inexperienced, who was concerned in session over the constructing’s design, mentioned whereas some folks discovered the juxtaposition of the constructing’s design with that of its neighbours to be “uncomfortable”, it offers with an uncomfortable previous. “We’re a society that’s waking up and studying its historical past.”

The positioning and type of Te Whare Hononga honours previous sight traces to Paritutu and to Pūkākā Marsland Hill, and guests to the whare from across the maunga and the motu will be capable to uncover the historical past of the area within the purpose-built area.

Beside the whare is a memorial to Ngāti Hauā chief Wetini Taiporutu and his son Hemi, Ngāti Apakura chief Whararangi, Ngāti Kōura chief Hakopa and two different unnamed rangatira, who had been buried within the grounds of the cathedral after the land wars. Their resting place is now marked by a three-metre bronze toki (adze), which was designed by artist Rangi Kipa and sits on high of a stone-filled platform.

Taranaki Cathedral Dean Jay Ruka (Ngāti te Whiti, Puketapu, Te Atiawa, Ngāti Mutunga) mentioned the memorial honouring these rangatira is a tangible first step within the cathedral’s dedication to actual and significant reconciliation.