from ArchitectureNow — we shall refrain from political comment

Jade Kake explores the multilayered design features of Te Kooti Whenua Māori, the new Māori Land Court in Whangārei, by GHDWoodhead creativespaces and Studio Pasifika.

Ka Tū Au ki te tihi o tōku maunga o Parihaka ki te mihi ki te whitinga o te rā. E tū ana au ki ngā tapuwae o ōku tūpuna i noho ai ki konei. Tirohia ki Manaia, ki tētahi o ngā pakiaka o Ngāpuhi, mihi ki te tūpuna ka tū tonu hei kōhatu, anei te toto e heke mai nei, mai i tēra maunga ki au. Titiro ki Pukenui, ki te uru, mihi ki te taha o Te Parawhau, ki ērā tāngata ki te tonga o te rā.

For Māori, the connections to Te Kooti Whenua Māori are complex and intensely personal. These experiences can be fractious and multilayered. Te Kooti can be a setting for rangahau, for wānanga ā-whānau — perhaps the beginning point of a thread to be unravelled, family secrets and whakapapa connections lying dormant — a site for reconnection. It is also, historically, a site of grief, a site of tāhae whenua but, also, more hopefully, a site of emancipation, of reconnection and of restoration, both now and into the future.

There is approximately 5.2 per cent of the New Zealand land mass retained in Māori freehold ownership, administered under Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993. In Whangārei, this is closer to 4 per cent, with the Waitangi Tribunal conceding that Whangārei was left “virtually landless”.¹ It is against this backdrop of loss and land alienation that the new Kooti Whenua Māori premises in Rathbone Street sit, the legacy of past legislation and practices forming a long shadow over those who arrive at the court to seek deliberations and support to tiaki and reside on their whenua.

The Māori Land Court provides a judicial forum to support Māori to administer and, ultimately, make decisions in relation to this land, the taonga tuku iho of Māori, passed down from our tūpuna. Through successive legislation and changes in societal attitudes, the role of the courts has changed significantly. It’s evident that the Māori Land Court’s role has shifted to that of enabler and supporter of Māori, with regard to our lands: a position that is expressed positively through the design of the new space.

For Carin Wilson (Ngāti Awa) — one of the principal designers on the new Kooti Whenua Māori project alongside the design team at GHDWoodhead creativespaces — the project is layered with deep personal and professional connections. His experiences on earlier kaupapa in Whangārei City led him to discover the historical and ongoing connections between his own iwi of Ngāti Awa and the tribes of Whangārei, through historical alliances and tuku whenua that enabled Ngāti Puukenga, a hapū of Ngāti Awa, to establish a kāinga at Pakikaikutu, along the northern edge of Whangārei-terenga-parāoa, the Whangārei Harbour.

As a renowned craftsman and designer, working mostly with rākau but also with other woven and cast materials, Wilson has contributed through the production of custom joinery and sculptural elements. His early studies as a lawyer and work on his own tribe’s Treaty claims provided an additional hāngai (or relevant connection) to the work of the courts, and provided context to his conversations with Māori Land Court judges as part of the design process.

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