Mana Motuhake Sculpture

Standing in Victoria Square, the sculpture Mana Motuhake invites visitors to pause, look carefully, and reflect on the deeper stories of this place.

Commissioned by the Crown for the square in 2018, and created by Ngāi Tahu master carver Fayne Robinson,  Mana Motuhake consists of two upright 4.75m waka sculptures, positioned in partnership with the statue of Queen Victoria.  The artwork makes visible a relationship that had long been represented from only one side.

For many years, the Queen Victoria statue stood alone as the sole acknowledgement of the Treaty relationship between the Crown and Ngāi Tūāhuriri, the mana whenua of this area. With the installation of Mana Motuhake, that partnership, as signatories to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, is more clearly recognised.

The two waka are identical in form, reinforcing balance and equality. Inside each waka are three ancestors, all connected to the signatories of Kemp’s Deed - the 1848 Ngai Tahu/Crown land purchase agreement. 

Fayne Robinson has spoken about the intention behind the placement and gaze of the figures, explaining that he sought to connect the eyes of Queen Victoria with the eyes of the ancestors within the waka, all looking in the same direction, fixed on the same point. The idea is one of shared kaupapa (principle, purpose): being one.

Throughout the carvings, further layers of meaning unfold. Elements speak to significance and direction of movement, food gathering, work in the rivers, and the landscape of a once-busy trading place. Also included is the sovereignty flag of the era.

Set into the paving at the entrance to Victoria Square, directly in front of the Queen Victoria statue, is a pepeha (traditional Māori introduction), an extract from Kemp’s Deed:

Ko ō mātou kāinga nohoanga,
ko ā mātou mahinga kai,
me waiho mārie mō ā mātou tamariki,
mō muri iho i a mātou.

Translated, it reads: “Our places of residence, cultivations and food gathering places must still be left to us, for ourselves and our children after us”.

The pepeha speaks to what this place was to Māori and reminds us of the breaches to Te Tiriti o Waitangi at the time - breaches which would take over 170 years to resolve.

Mana Motuhake is a celebration and reflection of our shared cultural heritage.