Hinemihi

At Clandon Park near Guildford in Surrey unexpectedly stands a Maori Meeting House named Hinemihi. The owner of Clandon, Lord Onslow, was made Governor General of New Zealand in 1888. When his term was over, he wanted to bring home a reminder of his stay, he had become close to Maori, learnt the language and gave his son a Maori name, Huai.

He found Hinemihi deserted and half buried in ash from a volcanic eruption, and was able to buy her for £50. He shipped her home to Surrey, apparently complete with the spirits which inhabit every Maori meeting house: Wairua - spirit of the creators, Mauri - life force of the gods, and Mana – ancestral power. Since then, she has stood in the grounds, visited occasionally by Maori who attend to the spirits.

Clandon Park and Hinemihi was gifted to the National Trust in 1956, and so the tradition continues. The building is about to be developed as she would have been, left in her own country, to meet the changing needs of the community.

We were lucky enough to enter a Maori Meeting House on a brief visit to New Zealand some years ago. The patterns and carvings are all meaningful, nothing happens by chance. In the one we visited, every member of the community had their own song, carved symbolically on panels which made up the internal roof. Hinemihi has a way to go to match that beauty and polished elegance.

These carvings are over the entrance to the meeting house, the lower one depicting the kind of facial tattoos Maori would have had, showing their life stories. We saw some while we were there, but only drawn the face on nowadays.