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February 01, 2022
Pipitea marae part of new archive plan
Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira
Posted On February 1, 2022
Download AudioTaranaki Whānui Te Āti Awa joined Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti this morning to turn the sod for a new home for the nation’s treasures.
The Heke Rua Archive will house taonga from Archives New Zealand, the National Library and Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision in a state of the art facility.
Ngā Tāonga chief executive Dr Honiana Love says mana whenua have been working with architects Warren & Mahoney and Taranaki artist and designer Rangi Kipa on the project.
They wanted to highlight the fact the Aitken St site next to the National Library in Thorndon was the location of Pipitea Pā with its gardens, pipi beds and kūmara mounts.
“When he thought about the building, he thought about how do you bring them back out of that landscape. We were missing from that pā for 100 years until Pipitea Marae was opened in 1980 and this is another chance for us to have some expression within this city and on our land,” Dr Love says.
Heke Rua Archive is expected to be open to the public by 2026.
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