One of the main iwi in eastern Bay of Plenty has set a date to re-open its ancestral meeting house - 130 years after it was taken from the tribe and shipped overseas.
The traditionally carved meeting house was built by master carver Wepiha Apanui and opened in 1875.
It was said to be a home where Queen Victoria would stay if she visited Whakatane, but four years later the government ordered it to be taken apart and shipped to an exhibition in Sydney.
The whare tipuna was then sent to Melbourne and London and came back to Dunedin for an exhibition in 1925.
The house remained at the Otago Museum until an agreement to return the house was signed between the Crown and Ngati Awa in 1996.
The first of the wharenui carvings were repatriated that same year.
The house now stands on its ancestral grounds in Whakatane.
A Ngati Awa spokesperson, Jeremy Gardiner, says much remains to do before the re-opening, including installing carvings and other taonga inside the wharenui.
Mataatua will open again on 17 September.
