MAORI CEREMONY ENDS MEETING HOUSE TAPU

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29165, 28 March 1960, Page 2

MAORI CEREMONY ENDS MEETING HOUSE TAPU

Encouraged by the chanting of senior Maori women, the first woman crossed the threshold of the new meeting house at Rehua Hostel yesterday. She is Miss Ata Couch, of Rapaki, who, with a group of young girls, performed the ceremony of breaking the tapu.

Now women may ent ing, to assist in making panels, for the walls. About 400, both Maori and pakeha, attended the ceremony yesterday. The traditional Maori ceremony was combined with a service of thanksgiving to ask God’s blessing on the progress of the work. This will be the only tradi-tional-style meeting house in the South Island. The women have already done much of the work on the panels. Groups from Christchurch. Rapaki, Little River, Taumutu. Tuahiwi, the W.E.A. Maori language class, and the Burwood Training Centre have made several panels, which were on displav yesterday. They are made of crossed dowels. lashed together to make a pattern. A large panel in traditional step design was on display in the meeting house. Women have also worked on the roof beams, which are painted in traditional designs in red, white, and black. Each beam is different. One of the designs has not been used before on a building. It is a black and white pattern in the form of a bird, and has been adapted from Maori rock drawings found in Waitaki Gorge. These drawings will be drowned out by the Benmore dam. Massive carved totara slabs have already been set up over the entrance. Carvers are now

er the half-finished buildthe tuku tuku, or woven working on the 20 wall slabs, which will commemorate famous ancestors of most of the tribes in New Zealand, since the boys who live at Rehua come from all parts of the country. The boys from the hostel have assisted in the construction of the meeting house.