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Tukotahi

COMING TOGETHER OF TWO CULTURES DEPICTED IN TUKOTAHI

This wood carving stands tall in front of the North Wing of Puke Ariki.

Artist: Designed by Filipe Tohi, constructed by Filipe Tohi and members of the Rangimarie Maori Arts and Crafts Society

Puke Ariki Landing, New Plymouth.

Puke Ariki Landing, which links the centre of the city with the foreshore, was developed during the late 1980s. As part of that development, a large wood carving was placed in the centre of the landing in 1991.

Named Tukotahi ("Standing Together"), the carving symbolises the arrival of the first Europeans to what was to become New Plymouth, and the welcome given by Maori living in a papakainga (village) called Pukeariki on that spot. The area of Puke Ariki Landing used to be an estuary at the mouth of the Huatoki Stream, where boats and canoes could land.

In 2004 the pou was removed from Puke Ariki Landing while the landing was renovated, then returned just a few metres from its original site so that it would line up better with the stone sculpture Karanga.