Inside History

A wharenui meeting hall

All of the elements of a wharenui are there to represent an ancestor in one fashion or another, from the roof to the ground. This all starts at the front of the meeting hall with the tekoteko, which is a figure of an ancestor that sits at the peak of the roof at the front of the building and/or a koruru, which is a carved face that might sit alone or just below a tekoteko.