July 23, 2020
Hinemihi images bring whare a step closer
Images of a meeting house exiled to an English country estate have gone on display at an Auckland gallery.
Photographer Mark Adams took the images of Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito in Clandon Park 20 years ago with a large format plate camera.
They are being displayed at Two Rooms Gallery in Arch Hill as part of the preparations for bringing the house back to Aotearoa.
The house opened in 1881 in the village of Te Wairoa near the entrance to the Pink and White Terraces to serve as a base for Tūhourangi’s tourism business, and it was one of the few structures to survive the 1886 Tarawera eruption.
It was sold to the governor general, William Hillier, the Earl of Onslow, and went home with him to Surrey in 1892.
Last year the National Trust in England agreed to return Hinemihi in exchange for a new carved house.
There will be a pōwhiri at the gallery this afternoon where Ngāti Hinemihi will view the photographs and discuss the return plan.
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