Tene Waitere: Master Carver
Tene Waitere: He tohunga whakairo
Ngāti Tarāwhai
Tene Waitere (1854–1931) was the most innovative Māori carver of his time.
The carvings he created for Nukuteapiapi show his extraordinary skill. His style was very experimental, and you can see that in his creation of the hero Hatupatu, who he carved in semi-profile (that means he carved the side of Hatupatu’s face instead of the front).
Tene Waitere created work for collectors and tourists, as well as for his family and other Māori. During his lifetime, his works were used and displayed throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Britain.
This story comes from the original Great Te Arawa Stories website created by Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru (NPeW) Education Trust in 2018. To ensure consistency, minimal updates were made to the text before it was transferred to this new site.
Did You Know? 
Tene Waitere was also the father of the famous Guide Rangi (Rangitiaria Dennan) of Whakarewarewa. He even helped in her birth, which was very unusual for a tohunga. He built a special whare (house) for her called ‘Hinemihi’, which was named after the original ‘Hinemihi’: a whare which had survived the Tarawera eruption at Te Wairoa, but was later shipped to England as a curiosity.
Sources
Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa
