January 30, 2013
Village reconstruction opportunity to learn
The promoter of a Māori village on a Waikato River island says he doesn't want a Tamaki Village-style recreation.
Wiremu Puke of Ngāti Wairere put the notion to consultants hired by Hamilton City Council to look at the tourism potential of the Waikato River.
He says visitors could travel by waka or kayak to a reconstructed pre-European pa on Graham Island near the Hamilton's Wellington St beach, on the site of Te Moutere ō Koipikau Pā.
Mr Puke says most reconstructions fail because they are based on artistic recreations, rather than looking in museums to find out how structures were actually built.
"I didn't want it to be, and I don't mean to say it in derogatory terms, a Tāmaki Village recreation. It intends to look at it as a recovery of many of the lost practical skills our tūpuna possessed in thatching of houses, whare raupo, and rua kumara, how they were constructed properly," he says.
Te Moutere ō Koipikau Pā was a popular tourism spot up until the early 20th century.
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