Story: Hawke’s Bay region

Waipapa a Iwi marae in Mōhaka is distinguished by its historic round meeting house, Rongomaiwahine. The origins of this meeting house are unclear – one source says it was built in 1885, another claims it replicates the round house built by Māori religious leader Rua Kēnana at Maungapōhatu (which he settled in 1907). A third – J. H. Mitchell’s authoritative text Takitimu(1944) – contains a photo of the building taken in 1902, before the Maungapōhatu structure was built.