Te Hau O Te Rangi Tutua
Ngāti Awa, Whakatane
Carving
Te Hau o Te Rangi Tutua was born in 1933 and is a recognised elder, carver and expert on traditions and customs of the Mataatua people whose tribal boundaries cover much of what is the Bay of Plenty. His tribal affiliations extend along the whole of that coastal region and right into the central plateau of the North Island. By genealogical lines he traces his ancestry to many of the ancestral voyaging canoes of the old people and excels at recitation of those ancestral linkages on marae gatherings throughout the country.
His expertise in the traditional stories and customs of the Maori are also expressed in his love of carved forms in wood, stone and bone. His role in the last 20 years has been as a senior expert in the art of carving. Today few such elders are alive to guide and encourage the arts from within the context of the culture, as only Te Hau and his few surviving contemporaries can. In the early 70's he enjoyed a fleeting time within what was loosely referred to as contemporary arts and his fine work at the Whakatane Town Hall is the best of those on public show. He was a member of the Maori Artists and Writers Association and this introduced him to many of the major leaders of the contemporary Maori arts movement. However he was eventually drawn back to the work of traditional form where as a secondary school teacher he found eager acceptance of the old forms.
Te Hau was raised by his grandmother and at an early age showed the inquisitive nature that was to exemplify his character in later life. He became aware of places that were off limits to kids and probably to most adults and such places became hugely attractive to a keen young mind. Ancestral caves, attics in old family homes with suitcases from a bygone era were really the repositories of family papers, books and records. He became an avid reader of such material and that gave him an amazing insight into the thinking and experiences of the former leaders and thinkers of his community. Chants and incantations contained within them were given life again and provided an invaluable resource for existing volumes of such knowledge.
Not all of his inquisitive nature was ignored and he became one of those young boys sent away to Levin to learn better ways. This only stalled his energy and he eventually returned to the Whakatane area where he enjoyed a normal young life for a Maori growing up in the mixture of rural and urban 1960s New Zealand. His prominence in education and in the arts has led to work nationally and internationally. Travels to China, and other parts of Asia, Europe, Pacific Islands, Canada and North America continue in his work as tohunga for Toi Maori.
Within Mataatua, he has is a key participant in the Research and Archive of the Runanga of Ngati Awa; Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi; national carvers committee of Tohunga Whakairo o Aotearoa; and national collective of cultural experts He Awhi Tikanga Maori. He has completed the refurbishment of a Mataatua carved house recently returned from Otago Museum. The reconstruction of this house on Mataatua land in two years time will be a major landmark in Te Hau's artistic and cultural career.
