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Te Whānau a Apanui is keen to see a pātaka now held in the Auckland War memorial Museum incorporated into a new school complex being built in Te Kaha.
Member Willie Te Aho says the school is being designed by architect Rau Hoskins with input from conservator Dean Whiting, who is advising on the sort of features that would give it a look and feel unique to the iwi.
The storehouse, Te Pōtaka, was built in the late 1700s at Maraenui and then moved to Raukokore in the early 1820s and hidden in a cave to protect it from Ngāpuhi raiders.
Mr Te Aho says its acquisition by the museum just over 100 years ago is contentious.
"You've got a burgeoning nation, you've got settlers coming in, they're used to having artifacts in a museum and they then get people who go out and acquire art by (un)scrupulous means and we've shown that it was acquired by (un) scrupulous means, the museum has said that it was happy to have the conversation about our aspiration," he says.
Mr Te Aho says Te Whānau a Apanui hopes to get acknowledgement of the pātaka included in its treaty settlement agreement in principle which should be signed later this month.
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