Story: Māori housing – te noho whare

This drawing by Louis Sainson, who travelled with French explorer Dumont d’Urville’s 1839 expedition, depicts an unidentified kāinga (village). The round roofs of the wharepuni (sleeping huts) are distinctive in departing from the more usual gable-roofed dwellings – one of which is visible at the extreme left of the image.