Tuia Te Maunga by Warren Warbrick (Rangitāne), 2025

"As the new Te Ahu a Turanga highway links two regions, part of the project also links the people and history.

Tohunga Toi Warren Warbrick (Rangitāne) created three of the five artworks along the Te Ahu a Turanga Manawatū-Tararua Highway.

The artwork on Parahaki Bridge was called Tuia te Maunga, which was an aurei, or cloak pin, and was meant to bring together the two mountain ranges, Ruahine and Tararua, divided by the Manawatū River.

It was believed the forests on the hills were the cloak of Papatūānuku (Earth mother) and looking into the Manawatū Gorge was supposed to be like two sides of a cloak wrapping around a body.

Warbrick thought a cloak pin would reinforce the idea of “pinning these two maunga together or pinning the cloak of the whenua together”.

Tuia meant to bind or weave things together and tangata was people.

Sources & image credits: The Post | The art that weaves links along the Manawatū-Tararua highway and RNZ | Groundbreaking stroytelling with a sculpture park you can drive through