A leader of the eastern Bay of Plenty iwi Ngati Awa says its recently opened ancestral meeting-house has the potential to become a tourist attraction.
Mataatua wharenui at Te Manuka Tutahi Marae was officially opened on 17 September. More than 2000 people attended the ceremony.
Confiscated by the Crown in 1879, the meeting-house had spent more than a century travelling parts of the globe as part of museum displays.
A Ngati Awa leader and historian, Sir Hirini Moko Mead, says Mataatua is now home and will function like other wharenui but with an additional duty.
He says people have shown huge interest in seeing and learning about the wharenui, so the iwi is considering training guides to give tours explaining the history of the house.
