Tikanga in Te Ao Mārama, the South Atrium

Te Tatau Kaitiaki by Graham Tipene is a gateway that marks the boundary between the outside world and the sacred spaces inside the Museum. When visitors step through its doors, the gateway ensures they do so ready to experience a unique welcome offered by our people, our interactive experiences and our artworks.

In formal settings such as whakatau and pōwhiri, the Te Tatau Kaitiaki signals to manuhiri (visitors) that this is a threshold, and it acts like a tomokanga or gateway similar to what you might find on a Marae. This threshold is where they await the karanga (call) into the Museum. When they step through, they enter Te Ao Mārama ready to be welcomed into our space. 

A tohu for our visitors of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Ngāti Paoa and Waikato-Tainui. Te Tatau Kaitiaki is also about connections between Mana Whenua through whakapapa, but also the common linkages to Pasifika both here, in Oceania and globally. It is important that all visitors, non-Māori and Māori alike, are enriched by this work and feel a familiarity, whereby hononga (connection, bond to Tāmaki Makaurau) is present in it.

Learn more about Graham Tipene and the carving of Te Tatau Kaitiaki here

Some elements of tikanga are hidden, but knowing that they're there and working enhances your experience in Te Ao Mārama. One of these is the mauri stone, which lays buried deep underground beneath the centre of the tanoa. 

A mauri stone is imbued with life-force; it is the life-force of the Museum. In 2005, during the first phase of major building works, a mauri stone was laid by Mana Whenua. Prior to the current phase of works commencing in 2019, a ceremony was held to let the stone rest while construction work was underway and the South Atrium was not being used.

Silently and invisibly, it regulates the energy flowing in, out and around the building and whenua, providing guardianship to all who are in the Museum – people and taonga.