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• How We Got Our Name
• Story of Te Puia
• Our History & Values

For Maori everything is in a name. It represents Mana, honour and prestige, land, deeds and ancestors. Every piece of history within a name is passed on to those who bear it. So the selection of one is often vigorous and lengthy. No truer than at the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute.

Since 1963 NZMACI has preserved and nurtured Maori traditions in Rotorua. The new millennium inspired new thinking.

Changes

Turuki, Turuki! Paneke! Paneke!
Advance, Advance! Move forward! Move Forward!

The institute had developed beyond initial hopes – from carving and weaving schools to a premiere cultural experience. It did not receive Government funding. Tourism and visitor revenue had, indeed, been the main source of income. Without it, the schools, set up specifically to save Maori arts and crafts, would never have survived. In the new competitive market the institute had to raise the bar.

By 2000, it oversaw guided tours, cultural performances, kiwi breeding programmes, nature walks, education workshops, management of the geothermal valley and so much more. A new name was needed to encompass and reflect all the gifts on the site. The challenge was finding the right one.

“We needed something that could protect and be connected to everything – the arts and crafts, the culture and the geothermal,” says cultural advisor, Te Keepa Marsh.

"We searched the past for the answers. We looked to the valley. There was only one name. Te Puia”

Te Puia

Te Puia was the impenetrable fortress of the Whakarewarewa Valley.

First occupied around 1325, a similar time to medieval castles in Europe, it was strategically built beneath the cliffs of Pohaturoa Mountain and surrounded by a natural moat of lethal hot pools.

Terraced palisades, cleverly designed to trap enemies in trench warfare, could be erected at a moment’s notice. When the warning call went out, tribes from around the area took refuge inside its’ protective walls. For centuries, Te Puia never fell in battle.

So, by its very position it was connected to geothermal. It guarded the culture, the people and the arts and crafts that lived through them. If any name could be a blanket of protection today it was Te Puia.

“Our role is to take Te Puia forward but ensure nothing is ever compromised.”

Future

For that reason, every identity will be preserved within the korowai, the cloak of Te Puia. The New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute will retain the title and uniqueness. Rotowhio Marae, home to the Maori village and named after the lake behind it, will always be Rotowhio. And nothing on earth will ever change the power and personality of the Whakarewarewa Geothermal Valley.

“We are privileged because we are here at a time managing a gift. The gift is the land,” says Andrew.

“But we have to ensure that it survives. We have to move forward and we have to develop because everything on site here is being set up for the next generation.”