Tuia 250 & Te Hā

Tuia – Encounters 250 was a commemoration in 2019 marking 250 years since the first onshore encounters between Māori and Pākehā (Europeans) in 1769. Tuia 250 celebrated New Zealand’s Pacific voyaging heritage and was a national opportunity to hold honest conversations about the past, the present and how to navigate a shared future.

Te Hā means the sharing of breath, which is part of the traditional hongi (Māori greeting of pressing noses). Breath was shared when the Endeavour’s captain James Cook and a local man “saluted by pressing noses” on a boundary marker rock in the Tūranganui River. This occasion is recognised as the first formal meeting between Māori and European.

There were events and over 50 projects enriching communities which took place nationwide.

A nation is bound together not by the past, but by the stories of the past that we tell one another in the present

Ernest Renan

Consultancy included:

Developing education projects to share and tell stories of first encounters of Māori and Europeans.