Waharoa (gateway)

This is a magnificent carved waharoa (entranceway) to a Māori pā (fortified village).

Details
The central archway of the gate is ornately decorated with the beaked manaia (carved beaked figures) form. An ancestral figure sits astride the upper arch of the gate itself, upon which other ancestral figures are represented in high relief. Two pillars carved with four vertically aligned figures flank the main gateway. Two manaia form the base with two more ancestral figures at the top. The upper-most figures of each pillar have fully tattooed faces. The entire waharoa is painted with a red ochre colour.

A commissioned model
Commissioned by the government, the waharoa was carved from a huge slab of tōtara brought from the central North Island to the Colonial Museum in Wellington by master carver Neke Kapua and his sons Eramiha and Tene. It was erected as the main entranceway to the model Māori pā 'Araiteuru' at the 1906 Christchurch Exhibition.

The waharoa was inspired by an older one that stood in the great pā at Maketu in the Bay of Plenty, and which was painted by Major General Robley, who fought in the New Zealand Wars in the nineteenth century.