Blog Ten - Hotunui

Blog 10 Hotunui at The Auckland War Memorial Museum

1. Describe your personal experience as you occupied this space. Think about how you approached the wharenui. How did the atmosphere differ from the exterior to the interior of the wharenui? Did it change the way you behaved? Was there anything unsettling about the experience?

When I entered the wharenui I walked more slowly and took time to look at the cravings and painted rafters. The interior seemed to be quite “busy” and alive with many patterns and eyes looking at me. This was a bit unsettling. Strangely enough, the interior felt calm at the same time.

The fact that the interior was rectangular with no hidden rooms and no structures above floor level also conveyed the feeling of openness and inclusiveness. I also felt a sense of comfort from walking on the wooden floor and the well proportioned dimensions of the room.

2. Who is Michael Austin? Where does he work and what does he specialise in?

Professor Michel Austin is a Unitec lecturer who is program leader for the Masters in Architecture course. He specializes in understanding Maori and Polynesian architecture, including housing and public buildings.

3. In what context does Austin say the “marae is not treated as architecture…”? How do you feel about this?

Austin states that in studies of Maori architecture, the buildings were “treated as monuments to a dying culture ”and that they were analysed as “decorated art objects”, with an emphasis on the carvings. (Austin, 223) The spatial and structural characteristics of the buildings and their cultural meanings were not analysed at all.

I think that this reflects Western ethnocentrism in the characterization of what is and is not architecture. This marginalization of Maori architecture has had wider consequences as Brown points out “… Maori architecture as part of New Zealand architecture, has always operated on the periphery of creative practice as far as the arts community and government are concerned.” (Brown, 136)

I think that to omit Maori architecture from consideration is to fail to recognize an important part of New Zealand’s heritage and is also a lost opportunity in gaining insight into the Maori culture (as this exercise has illustrated to me).

4. What three factors does Austin state are important to understanding the “significance of the marae?”

For Austin the concepts of open and closed space and exclosure are important. The marae is the open space, in front of the meeting house and the setting of it is important. It faces outward to open elements like the sea or flat land and it has closing elements behind it like mountains or bush. Exclosure refers to the space that is past the “boundary of the marae proper, but still part of the marae.” (Austin 229) For the marae to operate there must be a host group (tangata whenua) and a guest group (manuwhiri).

5. How does Austin describe a Maori concept of home? How might this differ from a western idea of home?

Austin says that for Maori, the community home (the marae) is of more importance than the individual nuclear family home. The special significance of the marae reflects the importance to Maori of a wider community of relations and ancestors. The marae is also important as a place the Maori expects to return to at the time of death.

6. What/where is home for you? Elaborate.

My concept to home is a bit different to most people as I have no family home (I live by myself and both of my parents live in a hospital.) In addition, although I am a New Zealander I have lived away from NZ for most of my life. For me, home is a place of beauty and stimulation where I can feel re-energised and calmed. The Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tate Modern Gallery in London are places that have this effect on me.

7. According to Austin, how does the meeting house discuss notions of embodiment?

The meeting house is symbolic of an individual, usually an ancestor. Austin writes that when you enter the meeting house, you are symbolically entering the body of the ancestor. Jamie Lee Kingi has said that it is also symbolic of entering a woman. Parts of the ancestor’s body are represented in the structure of the building – on the exterior the gable figure at the apex of the building is the koruru, the facing boards (maihi) are arms that end in fingers (raparapa). In the interior the ridge pole is the spine, the rafters are ribs, the centre pole is the heart. (Austin, 230) (Maori Info)

Works Cited

Austin, Michael. “A Description of the Maori Marae (1976).” New Dreamland: Writing New Zealand Architecture. Ed. D. L. Jenkins. Auckland: Random House New Zealand; 2005. pp. 222-23 Print

Brown, Dierdre, Maori Architecture: From Fale to Wharenui and beyond Penguin Books New Zealand 2009 Print

Maori Information website

http://www.maori.info/maori_society.htm Web 1st November 2o11