This series of modern tukutuku were commissioned in the early 1980s by Mac Whaanga as a taonga from the people of Tuwharetoa to the citizens of Lake Taupō District. They were created for the Taupō Post office building, which opened in 1986, and took two years to make.

Traditional tukutuku and taniko patterns were adapted by Queenie Te Maku u Wano and Ira Karitiana, with the assistance of fabric artist Fientje Allis-van Rossum, into designs that represent Taupō and its people.

From left to right, the designs are:

• Ngahere/Forest

• Nga Tangata/People

• Wairakei/Thermal

• Taupō nui-a-tia te Moana/Lake, and

• Ko Tauhara te Maunga/Tauhara Mountain.

Likely to be the first of their kind in Aotearoa New Zealand, the five panels are a modern adaptation of the traditional approach to tukutuku, and assembled from industrial materials including telephone cable (plastic electrical insulation tubing) chromed pipe and held together with round headed bolts.

According to the information provided, “Norma”, Peter Whaanga, Christine Napata and Ira Karaitiana completed the fabrication.

The Post Office ceased to operate around 1998, at which point the works were relocated to the new Taupō Library, which had opened in 1992.

See also:

• ‘Taupo Post Office commission : Fientje Allis-van Rossum, designer-Fibre artist’ in New Zealand crafts. No.21, 1987, p33.