Sculpture kept from women until unveiling

SYMBOLIC GATEWAY: An artist's impression of the nine-metre-high Waharoa carving by Delani Brown to be unveiled at the Taupo war memorial cenotaph on Saturday.

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Traditional Maori lore has cloaked a nine-metre-high sculpture in secrecy – and kept it off-limits to women – for the past six months while it awaits its unveiling in Taupo.

The carved wooden and metal artwork will form a waharoa, or gateway, to the cenotaph in the town centre.

The sculpture, a gift from Contact Energy to the town, will not be revealed to the public until the dawn unveiling on Saturday.

Taupo carver Delani Brown said he had followed traditional custom and the carving had been off-limits to women and photographers during the six-month project.

"In Maori culture, men and women play different roles and traditionally women are not involved when ancestral meeting houses are being carved. Women are considered the ones who bring things to life through birth," he said.

Women would be allowed to see the sculpture only at the unveiling, which was recognised as the birth, he said.

The sculpture includes three red and black painted wooden carvings, each weighing one tonne and measuring between three and 4 1/2 metres long, attached to a large arch-shaped structure made from recycled steel pipe used in the geothermal steam fields.

The carvings were made from 2000-year-old totara trees felled 70 years ago in Pureora Forest, west of Taupo. They symbolised the mountains Tongariro, Tauhara and Putauaki, which formed the physical boundaries of the iwi between Tongariro, Taupo and Kawerau, Brown said.

The three peaks were significant symbols used in Ngati Tuwharetoa mythology to show the relationship between the iwi and the mountains.

"The arched shape shows a spiritual gateway to a sacred place," Brown said. The design came to him from prayer and included human and spiritual characers.

After many hours sketching he knew the design was "right" when strong powers became aligned, he said.

"The sculpture tells the history of geothermal activity and exploration in Taupo, and the connection with the iwi.

"It is a story of geothermal energy, using patterns to show the movement of steam and lava and heat. There's some mystique in the sculpture which won't become apparent until it is unveiled."

Margaret Mutu, of Auckland University Maori Studies faculty, said traditional Maori customs involving women differed from region to region.

"Every area has its own way of doing things and it is not uncommon for women to be excluded when a meeting house is being carved because the place is very tapu.

"It is not meant as a put-down of women; it is put in place because women are so powerful in the spiritual world."

Women carvers were accepted in her iwi, Ngati Kahu, in the Far North, but not in other iwi.