Existing comment:
Tarawhai
Here stand I, Tarawhai
Treasured emblem in a foreign land
My face turned to the world
Welcoming the multitude alone
Tarawhai, an ancestral name given to this traditional Maori Waharoa or gateway, was dedicated on 21 January 1992 at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the New Zealand embassy in Washington. The special dawn ceremony was conducted by Maori elders Mr. Kuru Waaka, Mr. Joe Poroa Malcolm and Mrs. Grace Malcolm, and was attended by Mrs. Marilyn Tucker-Quayle, the Hon. Don McKinnon, New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister, and the New Zealand ambassador, H.E. Denis McLean.
Tarawhai was the ancestor of the carvers of this gateway Ane Te Rahui, Eramiha Kapua And Tene Waitere of the Ngati Tarawhai tribe of Roturua. The work of these master carvers contributed to the promotion of traditional Maori art culminating in the establishment of the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute in Rotorua. Carved in the 1920s, the gateway traditionally would have stood at the entrance to a pa (a fortified village). It is a fine example of the carving style of its time. |