JUDEA MEETING HOUSE IN RETROSPECT

Te Ao Hou, October 1956, Page 23

JUDEA MEETING HOUSE IN RETROSPECT by Pei Te Hurinui Jones The Rt. Rev. W. N. Panapa, Bishop of Aotearoa, addressed a gathering at the opening of the Judea Meeting House. (Rendell's Photos) The thirty-six page Souvenir Booklet with the title, “Opening Ceremonies of the Tamatea-pokai-whenua Meeting House and Iwipupu Dining Hall, Saturday, May 5th 1956,” is one of the best of its kind. It contains twenty-eight pages of Maori text with ancient chants, the Maori King's genealogical lines from Tamatea-pokai-whenua, and some notes of a historical nature. Several pages were devoted to a description of the house and its carvings, and the symbolism incorporated into the carving of the various figures is explained. A well deserved tribute is paid to Henare Toka, and his wife, Mere. Henare was the carving expert and Mere was the tutor and supervisor of the tukutuku woven panels. The English text is fully explanatory as to the leading figures in the initiation of the building projects, the plans for the decorative work, the generous measure of assistance from the Tauranga Borough Council, the Tauranga Historical Society, the 20,000 Club, the Chamber of Commerce and many European friends of the Ngati Ranginui tribe. An interesting feature in the Maori text is the reference to Missionary influence in the days preceding the outbreak of the Maori Wars and this is perpetuated in the adoption of biblical names for the principal tribal maraes of the tribe at Hairini (Cyrene), Maungatapu (the Sacred Mount), Huria (Judaea) and Peterehema (Bethlehem). Originally many of these were settlements established by the missionaries as convenient centres for their converts, who were drawn apart for religious purposes from their kith and kin. A dark cloud subsequently came over the scene with the outbreak of war—a dark cloud, albeit, through which shone the light of high courage and Christian conduct on the part of the people of Tauranga of which there is no parallel in the colonisation history of the British Empire. The confiscation of valuable tribal lands which followed is mentioned in the dying words of tribal elders in the long period of years which followed

that unhappy chapter in Ngati Ranginui history. The descriptive material gives good pen pictures of the Tamatea-pokai-whenua carvings as symbolic art.