Renowned master carver ‘gentle giant’ who loved to dance salsa

Pieces of Hugh Tareha remain in the many wooden sculptures and carvings he’s left behind across Hawke’s Bay and beyond.

The renowned master Māori carver, a descendent of Chief Tareha Te Moananui, died unexpectedly late last week.

Tareha (Ngāti Parau) was a long-time resident at theWaiohiki Creative Arts Village where his absence was already being keenly felt.

Brother-in-law Denis O’Reilly, who is married to Tareha’s sister Taape, said they had lived ‘‘only a paddock away from each other’’ on the papakainga site.

The ‘‘resident carver’’ of the village, Tareha’s love of art was apparent from a young age when he would take his sketchbook to town and draw all the Māori art deco motifs. ‘‘ He was described as the indigenous carver of Ahuriri. He never formally trained at any carving school. It just came out of him,’’ O’Reilly said.

He started carving in the 1980s after being surrounded by fellowMāori artists like carver, designer and educator Jacob Scott (Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Arawa, Ngāti Raukawa).

Tareha, who would have turned 63 next month, was widely regarded as a specialist ¯onOintraditionalMāoriwarweaponrylikesleepinapit tātara and have visions rākau and taiaha, working with indigenous and come back and transfer those into his woods like black maire, totara and rimu. carvings.’’ Tareha’s pou are dotted around ¯EITOO’ReillysaidTareha’sworkwasheavilytheAhuririprecinct,atthe tātara ¯onOinfluencedby‘‘communingwithancestors’’campus,and tātara itself. ātO tātara, one of the largest pā sites in His carving ofWiremu Tamihana stands Hawke’s Bay. ‘‘His strength was in his at the entrance toWaiohiki Marae. origination rather than his finishing.’’ He also has artwork in places all over

Tareha would take metaphysical the world. concepts and render them into a physical Most recently, he had been working on shape through the chisel. ‘‘He’d go and a commemorative Anzac sculpture of two

Clay artist and friend of Hugh Tareha soldiers out towards Rissington, in rural Hawke’s Bay. O’Reilly said he had also completed three pou that were still to be erected in October. ‘‘There’s unfinished work and there’s finished work that’s yet to be publicly shown.’’

He said they had given him a ‘‘ good send off’’ at his tangihanga on Monday, adding they likely made history by having a salsa in a meeting house to mark Tareha’s other great passion.

O’Reilly said he had no idea how Tareha got into salsa dancing, but he had taken to it with a passion.

The suit he wore while lying in state was one that had been prepared and tailored to him for an upcoming dance competition and his ancestral cloak had been moved slightly, so that people could see his dancing shoes.

Hundreds came to pay their respects and O’Reilly said he would be remembered for his ‘‘ humble and humorous’’ nature. ‘‘He had a great affinity with people.’’ Clay artist John Gisborne met Tareha after firstmoving to the village in 2003.

‘‘The fire always brought us together,’’ he said, adding it was where they would often sit and chat.

The two collaborated on a handful of different pieces, creating moulds out of pieces Tareha had sculpted. He still has one and says he’d never part with it unless the family asked.

He described Tareha as ‘‘very organised’’ in his workshop, where he would shut himself away and listen to music while he worked, tapping away. ‘‘He put himself into each of his pieces.’’ Gisborne was sad not to have seen Tareha dancing, having heard the ‘‘gentle giant’’ was a bit of a rule-breaker who moved in his own animated way.

‘‘He’s going to leave a huge hole in the village and already the feeling is different.’’

‘‘The fire always brought us together.’’ John Gisborne