Story: Daily life in Māori communities – te noho a te hapori

In the face of rapid and dramatic changes to their patterns of life, rather than adapting entirely to Pākehā ways some Māori communities aimed to return to earlier patterns of communal living and to revive traditional beliefs and customs, or developed new ones. This remarkable circular meeting house, named Rongomaiwahine, was opened around 1902 at Waipapa a Iwi, at Mōhaka in Hawke's Bay. It does not derive directly from either traditional or introduced styles of architecture.