‘Mana whenua’ means authority over tribal lands. This zone celebrates tangata whenua, the first people of this land. Explore the powerful stories of Māori and Moriori through ancestral treasures, oral histories, and contemporary art.

Manu Rere Moana

Voyages from Hawaiki, or ancestral homelands, are told here through the story of Te Aurere. This modern waka hourua, or double-hulled ocean canoe, travelled to Rarotonga and other islands that early ancestors of Māori sailed from. Te Aurere’s journeys were a rediscovery of knowledge about celestial navigation and long-distance voyaging.

He Kaupapa Waka

See a photo display capturing the waka fleet that gathered in the Bay of Islands on Waitangi Day in 2020. The event marked the 80-year anniversary of Ngātokimatawhaorua – a large ceremonial waka built 100 years after the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Mākōtukutuku sleeping house

Mākōtukutuku is a reconstructed sleeping house of the 1400s. Ngāti Hinewaka, a tribe of southern Wairarapa, made it with customary methods in the 1990s.

Te Hau ki Tūranga meeting house

See this exceptional whare whakairo, or carved meeting house, at the core of Mana Whenua.

Te Tākinga storehouse

Te Tākinga is a richly carved pātaka, or storehouse, built around 1850. It is a treasure of the Ngāti Pikiao tribe of the Rotorua region, and symbolises wealth and power.

Tchakat Moriori

Here, Moriori celebrate their survival against great odds. They are the original people of the islands of Rēkohu, also called the Chatham Islands or Wharekauri.

Pounamu treasures

See carved pounamu pendants, weapons, and tools from across the centuries.