Story: Kīngitanga – the Māori King movement

Tūrangawaewae House in Ngāruawāhia was opened in 1919 as a new parliament house for the Kīngitanga. The building combined European and traditional Māori architecture. It was seldom used for parliamentary gatherings, and instead housed a health clinic, the local Māori Land Court and the Tainui Trust Board. Its location was part of a continuing attempt to return the Kīngitanga to the site of Tāwhiao's pā at Ngāruawāhia. The land on which the pā had stood was confiscated after the New Zealand wars, and the Kīngitanga was obliged to buy it back in order to return there.