Curriculum links
Learning areas
- Social Studies
- Technology
Which strands will it fit with?
- Social Studies - Place and Environment, Continuity and Change, Identity, Culture, and Organisation
- Technology - Nature of Technology
Key Competencies
Thinking - students will examine the components and structure of a wharepuni (sleeping house), constructing knowledge of how and why they were used in their original context.
Levels of achievement
Levels 1-7
Year group
Years 1-11
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Which topics of study can it support?
- New Zealand Technological Advances
- Innovation and Invention
- New Zealand Society - Past and Present
How long might this take?
Allow 5-10 minutes.
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Where do I find it?
Why should I take my class to visit this?
- This is a great example of a unique sixteenth century wharepuni or sleeping house.
- The whole class can fit easily around the front of the item and go inside.
What is there to do there?
- Look and observe and use this item as a discussion point.
- Go inside and listen to the audio.
- Watch the video that explains the experiences of Ngāti Hinewaka while building the wharepuni and their reasons for building it.
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What should I know about this?
- This taonga (treasure) is a reconstruction of a wharepuni or sleeping house from the Mākōtukutuku valley in the Wairarapa, inland from Cape Palliser (Mātakitaki a Kupe).
- The wharepuni reconstruction was an opportunity to reclaim and revive ancestral skills and knowledge (mātauranga Māori) of customary house-building and tool-making technology, such as the stone tools used to hew the timber for the house. This project was part of other iwi (tribal) projects planned by Ngāti Hinewaka.
- The project began in 1995. It took Ngāti Hinewaka people over three years of wānanga (schools) and hui (meetings) to learn the techniques necessary to construct this building. Dedicated people worked hard, over a long period of time, gathering and preparing materials such as finding suitable tōtara logs to split into the frames, preparing the raupo for the walls, splitting and preparing the vines for the binding, and collecting and weaving the nikau palm for the roof. A whare raupō was constructed at Pirinoa marae, Kohunui, with the help of expert Tona Nuri (Te Arawa) in preparation for the wharepuni at Te Papa. Ngāti Hinewaka stayed in Te Papa for two months to construct the building.
- Ngāti Hinewaka are a South Wairarapa hapū (subtribe) of Ngāti Kahungunu, who occupy the region and descend from the earlier people who built the original wharepuni in the sixteenth century.
- The original taonga was a family sleeping house and not a ceremonial house, although archaeologists uncovered a young dog’s jaw bone buried underneath the centre back post, which they thought was a sign of ritual involving the construction of the whare, perhaps an early example of the practice today of depositing the ‘mauri of the house’.
- Construction drew on traditional methods. Using traditional tools and materials the timber was adzed, finished, rubbed with shark oil, and lashed with kiekie vine and pirita (supplejack).
- The roof was woven with nīkau fronds.
- The walls are made from raupō.
- There are traditional tools used for catching fish outside the front entrance such as hinaki (crayfish pot), kete (baskets), tōrehe and pouraka (fish traps).
- Archaeologists from the University of Otago uncovered the original whare in a dig that took place in 1969-73.
- The image behind this construction is of the Mākōtukutuku Valley in the Wairarapa where the original house, gardens, and settlement were.
- The house is built low to keep the warmth in. A hearth inside generates heat. Whare translated means ‘house’, puni ‘to seal’ (sealing in the heat or warmth).
- There is whalebone lying along the side of the wharepuni (on the ground) that came from a whale stranded on the South Wairarapa coast about the time that Ngāti Hinewaka started this project. It is with the house as a mauri (spiritual guardian or life force) reminding us of the kaitiakitanga (guardianship) role of Ngāti Hinewaka to their natural environment and the customs and values of their ancestors.
Possible topics for discussion
- Is this building new or old? Is it traditional or modern? (Customary methods were used to make this traditional wharepuni.)
- What would the people who once lived in a wharepuni like this have slept on? (Usually finely woven flax or kiekie mats over soft moss or bracken. The bedding for this wharepuni would have also consisted of bracken.)
- Did they have pillows? (No pillows were introduced by Europeans.)
- What is the difference between the pātaka (food store) and the wharepuni? Check out Te Tākinga (the traditional food store house) next to Te Hau ki Turanga (the traditional wharenui or meeting house on Level 4). Note that the general shape of the wharepuni is the same as Te Hau ki Turanga (rectangular with central posts) - this has not changed over time.
- How did the people of Aotearoa New Zealand keep warm in their houses, four hundred years ago? Usually embers were taken inside, or body warmth was created by huddling close together. The construction of the house also helps conserve heat as the roof is low and thick, the walls are thick, and the door and windows are small.
- How many people can fit into this building, safely? How many people can sleep in this building? Use your class to see how many people can fit inside this building, safely.
- Look at the photograph behind the wharepuni (showing where it was originally built) and guess what the weather is like in this area and how this would effect the design of the building? (The wharepuni is low to conserve heat and would be facing a direction so as not to receive the prevailing wind into the front.)
- Check out the objects surrounding this wharepuni. What would the people of this area have used these objects for? What can this tell us about how the people who once used them? (For example, nets for fishing, kete for holding food, and whalebone for making tools and objects. How long would it take you to collect food for the day?)
- What are some of the possible challenges that people had to face four hundred years ago as compared to today? (For example, keeping warm, food availability, and health.)
- Māori ancestors lived on a seasonally varied diet of fresh and dried fish, shellfish, birds, vegetables, meat, and forest produce. They drank water. Compare this with today’s lifestyle - pollution, high fat food content, and so on.
- Are there any similar aspects to this wharepuni and houses of today? (For example, doorway, small windows, and the shape of the roof.)
- Are there any natural resources around where you live that could be used to make a similar wharepuni or some other construction like a tree house? Could you make the construction without using modern tools? Are the resources to make this construction native or introduced?
- Would you live in it? Why? Why not?
- Take the students to the partial fale in PlaNet Pasifika. Compare the fale to the wharepuni. How are they different from each other? What are the similarities? (Take note of the weaving of the nīkau leaves on the wharepuni and the coconut leaves on the fale. The height of the wharepuni is low to conserve heat where the height of the fale is high and allows air movement through the stucture so as to keep it cool.)
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- Tai Awatea | Knowledge Net, Te Papa’s online resource.
- Davidson, Janet. 1984. The Prehistory of New Zealand. Auckland: Longman Paul.
- Smith, Huhana, et al. 2004. Icons Ngā Taonga. Wellington: Te Papa Press.
- Leach, B F, and Leach, H M (eds). 1979. Prehistoric Man in Palliser Bay. National Museum of New Zealand Bulletin 21.
- The pātaka (store house) Te Takinga on Level 4. This is an example of a specialised building.
- The wharenui (meeting house) Te Hau ki Turanga on Level 4. This is an example of a specialised building.
- The fale in PlaNet Pasifika on Level 4. This is an example of housing solutions using natural resources in the Pacific.
- The waka (canoe) Teremoe on Level 4. This is an example of innovative use of natural resources.
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