Panorama: former Māori Affairs Committee Room

Panorama of the former Māori Affairs Committee Room

The room contains portraits of significant Māori MPs, as well as a large facsimile of the Treaty of Waitangi.

For best results we recommend viewing this panorama in full screen mode. An audio description can be activated from the relevant menu button.

Transcript and translation of related commentary by Wiremu Haunui, Kaiwhakamarama Reo for the Office of the Clerk.

A Matangireia, te Rūma o te Komiti Whiriwhiri Take Māori i mua

He rūma motuhake i takohatia ki te Komiti Whiriwhiri Take Māori (ko te Komiti Whiriwhiri Take Tangata Whenua i taua wā), ā, i whakatuwheratia te rūma nei i te tau 1922, i ngā whare o muri, i te otinga o te Whare Pāremata. I tae te Pirimia a Massey me āna minita ki te pōhiri a te iwi Māori, ā, i whai atu te hākari i te Whare Kāwanatanga tawhito. Ko ngā whakairo e tohu ana i te tomokanga i whakamaua ki tētahi o ngā pakitara, ā, ki runga anō hoki i ngā kaho o ngā whatitoka kia tika ai te rūma hei wāhi whakaemi tahitanga mai mō te Māori.

I whakahōungia anō te rūma i te tau 1955 i raro i ngā whakahaerenga o John Grace te hēkeretari motuhake ki te Minita Māori, ā, tētahi o ngā rangatira nō Ngāti Tūwharetoa, kia noho mai ai te rūma hei ‘wāhanga whakakitenga' a te Whare Pāremata. I whakapaipaitia te tuanui e ngā kōwhaiwhai whero me te mangu, i whakahōungia anō te kape tomokanga ki te whare rūnanga, ā, i whakatōroatia atu ngā tukutuku kia kapi katoa ai ngā pakitara. I whakamaua he tauira rahi o te Tiriti o Waitangi ki runga i tētahi o ngā pakitara, ā, i reira anō hoki ngā whakaahua whaikano mō ngā Mema Pāremata Māori rongonui a James Carroll, a Te Rangi Hīroa, a Māui Pōmare, a Apirana Ngata. Ā, kua tāpiritia atu ngā whakaahua o nā noa nei o Eruera Tirikātene me Matiu Rata.

Whai atu ana i ngā mahi whakapaipaitanga anō me te hanganga o tētahi rūma hōu rahi atu (a Māui Tikitiki-a-Taranga), mō te Komiti Whiriwhiri Take Māori i tētahi tūnga mataho rawa atu i ngā whare, ka whakatuwheratia anō te rūma nei i te tau 1996. I hoatu te ingoa Matangireia (Te Rangi 13 tō runga rawa) ki te rūma, otirā, ki te wāhi nei e tūtaki katoa ai ngā iwi i raro i te maru o te rongomau, te ngākau tapatahi, me te āio.

Matangireia, former Māori Affairs Committee Room

A special room dedicated to the Māori Affairs Committee (then the Native Affairs Committee) was opened in 1922 at the rear of the buildings when Parliament House was completed. Prime Minister Massey and his ministers attended the Māori ceremony which was followed by a banquet in the old Government House. Carvings denoting the entrance to a whare rūnanga were fixed to a wall and on the architraves of the doors to make the room appropriate for Māori to come together.

The room was renovated in 1955 under the supervision of John Grace, the private secretary to the Minister of Māori Affairs and a Tūwharetoa chief, to become a ‘show part of Parliament Buildings'. Red and black kōwhaiwhai decorated the ceiling and cornices, the replica whare rūnanga entrance was restored, and tukutuku was extended around the walls. A large panel reproducing the Treaty of Waitangi was mounted on a wall, which also displayed coloured portraits of notable Māori MPs James Carroll, Te Rangi Hīroa (Peter Buck), Māui Pōmare and Apirana Ngata. More recently portraits of Eruera Tirikātene and Matiu Rata have been added.

Following refurbishment and the creation of a larger new room for the Māori Affairs Committee ( Māui Tikitiki-a-Taranga) in a more prominent position in the buildings, this room was reopened in 1996. It was given the name Matangireia (13th and uppermost heaven) where all iwi could meet in a place endowed with feelings of peace, harmony and tranquillity.