March 14, 2014
Te Rangipamamao heads home
Tuwharetoa hapu Ngati Te Kohera has welcomed home a taonga stolen from one of its meeting houses 70 years ago.
The koruru or carved head of Te Rangipamamao was taken from the disused whare Te Kohera at Kakaho on the north western side of Lake Taupo in the 1940s, and ended up in the Dominion Museum in Wellington.
It was recently tracked down there by Te Kohera Kakaho Trust member, Mic O'Dea, after years of searching.
After being brought to Mokai Marae so members of the hapu could pay their respects, Te Rangipamamao was lodged in the Tuwharetoa Gallery, at Taupo Museum.
Trust deputy chair Edwin Ashford says the iwi needs to push to get other taonga home, so their significance and the stories that go with them will not be lost to future generations.
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