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Taonui-a-kupe Rickard, Te Raakau Kotahi (1985). University of Waikato, accessed 02/11/2024, https://onehera.waikato.ac.nz/nodes/view/10637
Te Raakau Kotahi, the one tree, carved under the supervision of Tainui Master Carver Taonui-a-kupe Rickard. It originally stood in the garden at the entrance of the old Law School and has moved with the school to this building.
This paepae was a personal gift from the Māori Queen, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, to Waikato University and the Law school. The timber is from the taahuhu of the whare whakairo meeting house at Waahi Paa in Huntly. A taahuhu is the ridgepole and backbone of a whare and is often used as a metaphor for a direct line of ancestry. It was originally carved for King Tāwhiao by Paatara Te Tuhi who was, among other things, a Waikato leader, newspaper editor, warrior, and secretary to the Māori King.
In 1965 the whare was dismantled and the wood placed into storage for many years until 1981 where Rickard oversaw the project of carving the paepae at Waahi paa. It was completed in 1985. Te Raakau Kotahi is deliberately placed inline with the east and west compass points so the figures at each end, called manaia, can be positioned to face the rising and setting sun. It is in this way the raakau welcomes and farewells each new day.
Within these manaia are eight figures representing eight of the sacred waka, the great migratory canoes that brought Māori ancestors to Aotearoa. From east to west they are Te Arawa, Maataatua, Taakitimu, Tokomaru, Kurahaupo, Aotea, Ngatokimatawhaorua and Horouta. Between these figures is a network of linking manaia, depicting the whakapapa genealogy of the sacred canoes. These connections bind and strengthen the kaupapa principles on which the Law School is founded. Amidst all the figures a small figurehead at the centre represents the descendants. This references the next generation who will enter this Law School to seek, question, and learn thus furthering their knowledge.
The raakau represents Tainui welcoming the descendants of the sacred waka, embracing them and giving full support with their blessings and assurance. Te Raakau Kotahi literally means the one tree, referencing the tree of wisdom, but has deeper connotations of knowledge opening pathways for the future. In its entirety it is the tree of unity, one of the most powerful and central conceptual values of the Maaori ethos, combining all the strands and components of history, time and culture of all the peoples of Aotearoa.