06 May 2026
North Island’s Opus Orchestra are touring a special performance of The Journey of Mataatua Whare during New Zealand Music Month, telling the powerful story of a Ngāti Awa wharenui (large house) that was separated from its iwi for more than 130 years before finally being returned to its rightful home.
The Journey of Mataatua Whare-the house that came home is an unstaged opera in concert by Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead. In the upcoming concert tour, the work is presented alongside Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor), placing a contemporary New Zealand composition at the centre of the programme. Opus Orchestra is the professional orchestra for the Waikato and Bay of Plenty and performs regularly across these regions.
The Journey of Mataatua Whare tells a true story of displacement, resilience and return. Built in Whakatāne in 1875 by Ngāti Awa, Mataatua Wharenui is not only an architectural taonga but a living ancestor. In 1879, just four years after its completion, the colonial government “borrowed”, dismantled and sent the wharenui overseas, where it was exhibited in Sydney, Melbourne and the United Kingdom. During decades abroad it was damaged, incorrectly reassembled, stripped of context, and eventually stored for many years in the basement of London’s South Kensington Museum. Returned to Aotearoa in 1925, Mataatua Wharenui spent a further 70 years at Otago Museum before, in 2011, finally coming home to Ngāti Awa in Whakatāne. Its 132 year journey has left a profound cultural, emotional and spiritual legacy for the iwi.
General Manager of Opus Orchestra, Rebecka Beetz, says the upcoming performances mark the first public opportunity for Te-Ika A Maui North Island audiences to experience this significant work.
“The story of Mataatua Whare is a Bay of Plenty story,” she says. “While we are unable to come to Whakatāne, where Mataatua stands, it feels appropriate for Opus Orchestra…to be performing this piece and telling the story of this carved meeting house and its eventual return home.”
Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead worked with violinist and concertmaster Tessa Peterson on the opera piece, after Tessa came across a brief description of the wharenui in 2022.
As she read about the whare’s journey to the other side of the world and back, she realised it was the same wharenui she had visited at Otago Museum as a child growing up in Dunedin. “I decided that this incredibly moving story should be more widely known and must be my project,” Tessa says.
Gillian was immediately struck by what the wharenui had endured. “It suggested a story that evolves through changing times and that needs to be known, like so many stories of Aotearoa,” she says. “It had a built in dramatic structure which would lend itself very well to a musical setting.”
“Over the following two years, having been granted permission by Ngāti Awa to tell the story in this way, Gillian and Tessa worked together to shape the piece, consulting closely with the iwi on the historical detail and the use of te reo Māori.”
In June 2025, Opus Orchestra performed The Journey of Mataatua Whare inside Mataatua Wharenui in a private performance for Ngāti Awa.
“Ngāti Awa allowing Opus Orchestra to come into their space and tell their story through our artform was incredibly powerful. After the performance, all musicians of Opus Orchestra were made honorary members of Ngāti Awa,” says Gillian.
Rebecka Beetz, who was also playing in the orchestra that day, says the musicians felt that same intensity.
“There were many tears on the day, amongst the audience as well as the players. As artists, what we want to achieve is convey emotion through our art, and that certainly happened.”
Sir Hirini Moko Mead, who wrote that original report about the Whare’s journey, reflected on the performance in Whakatāne, describing it as a powerful and thought provoking experience. He noted that telling the story through music offered a different way of engaging with history, one that challenged imagination and understanding, and expressed strong support for Opus Orchestra taking the work to audiences across Te Ika a Māui.
Gillian expresses her heartfelt thanks to Ngāti Awa, particularly to Tā Hirini Moko Mead, for his friendship and encouragement of the mahi, and to Opus Orchestra and Peter Walls for their dedication in bringing the work to life.
The concert will visit Rotorua on 15 May, Tauranga on 16 May and Hamilton on 17 May.