Hone Taiapa

Hōne Te Kāuru Taiapa (10 August 1912 – 10 May 1979), also known as John Taiapa, was a Māori master wood carver (tohunga whakairo) and carpenter of Ngāti Porou. He was the younger brother of master Māori carver Pine Taiapa. The two brothers worked closely with politician Sir Āpirana Ngata on reintroducing the Māori arts & crafts to the country after World War II.

Early life Taiapa was born at Tikitiki on the East Coast in 1912, one of 14 children of Tāmati Taiapa and Maraea Te Iritawa. In the early 1930s he went to assist his brother Pine, who was a student of carving at a school of Māori arts and crafts that had been established at Ohinemutu in Rotorua in 1927. The brothers studied under Rotohiko Haupapa, an Arawa carver. Haupapa died in 1932 and Eramiha Kapua took over teaching at the school. Kapua told his students not to bother with tapu observances around carving, in case they got it wrong. The school closed in the late 1950s. During this period Taiapa also worked as a builder to supplement his carving work.

In the 1960 Queen's Birthday Honours, Taiapa was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for cultural services to the Māori people, especially in the field of wood carving.

In 1963 the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute was established by an Act of Parliament. Taiapa became the head of the Institute's Wood Carving School at Whakarewarewa, Rotorua when it opened in 1967. He then trained and guided the next generation of master carvers to take his place; he died in 1979. Notable disciples of Taiapa are Rangi Hetet, Clive Fugill and James Rickard, all now widely considered as 'tohunga whakairo' or master carvers.