Lake Taupō is a large crater lake in New Zealand's North Island, located in the caldera of Taupō Volcano. The lake is the namesake of the town of Taupō, which sits on a bay in the lake's northeastern shore. With a surface area of 616 km2 (238 sq mi), it is the largest lake by surface area in New Zealand, and the second largest freshwater lake by surface area in geopolitical Oceania after Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea. Motutaiko Island lies in the southeastern area of the lake.
Waka are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel to large, decorated war canoes up to 40 metres (130 ft) long.
Ngāti Tūwharetoa is an iwi descended from Ngātoro-i-rangi, the priest who navigated the Arawa canoe to New Zealand. The Tūwharetoa region extends from Te Awa o te Atua at Matatā across the central plateau of the North Island to the lands around Mount Tongariro and Lake Taupō.
Arawa was one of the great ocean-going, voyaging canoes in Māori traditions that was used in the migrations that settled New Zealand.
In Māori tradition, Ngātoro-i-rangi (Ngātoro) is the name of a tohunga (priest) prominent during the settling of New Zealand (Aotearoa) by the Māori people, who came from the traditional homeland Hawaiki on the Arawa canoe. He is the ancestor of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and his travels around Lake Taupō and up onto the Volcanic Plateau are the basis of Ngāti Tūwharetoa's claim to those regions.
Tainui was one of the great ocean-going canoes in which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand approximately 800 years ago. It was commanded by the chief Hoturoa, who had decided to leave Hawaiki because over-population had led to famine and warfare. The ship first reached New Zealand at Whangaparāoa in the Bay of Plenty and then skirted around the north coast of the North Island, finally landing at Kawhia in the western Waikato. The crew of the Tainui were the ancestors of the iwi that form the Tainui confederation.
The New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute (NZMACI) is an indigenous traditional art school located in Rotorua New Zealand. It operates the national schools of three major Māori art forms.
Toi whakairo or just whakairo (carving) is a Māori traditional art of carving in wood, stone or bone.
Pākā Bay, formerly called Halletts Bay is a bay on the eastern shore of Lake Taupō, New Zealand, about 27km south-east of Taupō township. It was known as Hamaria, in the nineteenth century. and before that Paka. The early Māori explorer Tia built a tūāhu to signify he occupied the land and named the cliffs Taupō-nui-a-Tia. This name was later given to the lake by the occupying tribes that followed.
In Māori traditions, Tia was an early Māori explorer of Aotearoa New Zealand and a rangatira (chief) in the Arawa tribal confederation. He is responsible for the names of various features and settlements around the central North Island, most notably Lake Taupō. He might have lived around 1400.
Rangikaiamokura Wirihana Hetet is a Māori master carver of Ngāti Tuwharetoa and Ngāti Maniapoto descent.
Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II was a New Zealand Māori tribal leader of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi.
Lyonel Grant is a New Zealand Māori master carver and sculptor. Born in Rotorua, he affiliates to Ngāti Pikiao and Te Arawa. Grant identifies as Maori Indian.
Chris Bailey is a Māori sculptor and carver. Bailey studied Māori language and Māori material culture at the University of Auckland under Dante Bonica. He lives and works on Waiheke Island.
Tauranga Taupō is a semi-rural area located at the mouth of Tauranga Taupō River, on the southern shores of Lake Taupō in New Zealand's North Island.
Charles Eldon Fayne Robinson is a New Zealand Māori artist specialising in carving. Robinson has contributed to the carving of buildings on many marae in New Zealand as well as exhibiting his art in galleries and museums.
Te Rangiita is a small settlement in the Tauranga Taupō area of the Taupō District, New Zealand.
Werewere was a seventeenth-century Māori rangatira (chieftain) of Ngāti Kurapoto and Ngāti Tūwharetoa from the region around Lake Taupō, New Zealand. Werewere joined the dominant chieftain of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Tamamutu, on an expedition against Rotorua, but the two men clashed and Tamamutu expelled him from the Taupō region. Werewere settled at Motu-o-rūrū in Heretaunga, from which Werewere launched a successful raid on Taupō. He died peacefully at Motu-o-rūrū.
The Tūhoe–Ngāti Tūwharetoa War was a conflict which took place on the east coast of Lake Taupō in the central North Island of New Zealand in the mid- to late eighteenth century, between the Tūhoe iwi of Te Urewera and the Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi of Lake Taupō.
Clive Ernest Fugill is a New Zealand Māori tohunga whakairo, author and long serving kaiako whakairo of the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute. He affiliates to the Ngāti Ranginui iwi of Tauranga, and also has links to Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Rangiwewehi and Ngāti Tūkorehe.
