People of Ngati Kuia are being asked to reduce the size of photographs of tupuna in one of their Marlborough meeting houses.
The wharepuni (main house) and wharekai (dining hall) at Te Hora marae are being developed and there is a shortage of space on the ancestors' wall.
Leaders are requesting that whanau cut the size of the images and to think about using pictures of couples if both are deceased.
Ngati Kuia chair Waihaere Mason said he wanted to get the gallery ready for the re-opening on the marae in April.
He said a family with four photographs of a relative had already reduced it to one picture.