thumb|Tāne-nui-ā-rangi, the wharenui at [[:mi:Waipapa Marae|Waipapa Marae, University of Auckland]]
thumb|Inside Tāne-nui-ā-rangi at [[:mi:Waipapa Marae|Waipapa Marae]]
thumb| right|A modern wharenui at [[Te Papa, a museum in Wellington]]
A wharenui (; literally "large house") is a communal house of the Māori people of New Zealand, generally situated as the focal point of a marae. Wharenui are usually called meeting houses in New Zealand English, or simply called whare (a more generic term simply referring to any house or building).
Also called a whare rūnanga ("meeting house") or whare whakairo (literally "carved house"), the present style of wharenui originated in the early to middle nineteenth century. The houses are often carved inside and out with stylised images of the iwi's (or tribe's) ancestors, with the style used for the whakairo (carvings) varying from tribe to tribe. Modern meeting houses are built to regular building standards. Photographs of recent ancestors, as well as carvings, may be used. The houses always have names, sometimes the name of a famous ancestor or sometimes a figure from Māori mythology. Some meeting houses are built at places that are not the location of a tribe, but where many Māori gather; typically, a school or tertiary institution with many Māori students.
The wharenui is considered the realm of the peace deity Rongo while the surrounding marae is sacred or tapu being for Tūmatauenga; entrance thus is often described as "climbing up" (piki or eke) instead of "arriving" (haere) inside it to discard trailing tapu. While a meeting house is considered sacred, it is not a church or house of worship, but religious rituals may take place in front of or inside a meeting house. On most marae, no food may be taken into the meeting house; a special eating house (whare kai) is made separate of it. Frame components were bound together by complex rope lashing techniques (mīmiro) adapted from local seamanship applying tensile forces while allowing for flexible shifting and relaxing during seismic activity, such techniques however became increasingly obsolete with the introduction of nails into part of the woodwork. The mīmiro was successfully tested of its resistance with an experimental model set up in Ōpeke near Waioeka as a collaborative study between a research team headed by Prof. Anthony Hōete from the University of Auckland School of Architecture and Planning with the local hapū Ngāti Ira in 2023.
By the 15th century, wharenui became more elaborately carved, and large enough that one or two central pou (posts) were needed to carry the weight of the structure.
During the 19th and early 20th century, missionaries and Christians condemned whakairo depicting genitalia, and removed penises of ancestors from the carvings on wharenui. Opposition to carvings depicting genitalia ceased in the 1940s.
Structure
The building often symbolises an ancestor of the wharenui's tribe. Different parts of the building represent body parts of the ancestor.
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Wharenui_outer_parts.svg|Labelled parts of the wharenui
File:Maori meeting house carvings in Wellington.jpg|The ridgepole (tāhuhu) and perpendicular rafters (heke) from inside
</gallery>
- The koruru at the point of the gable on the front of the wharenui can represent the ancestor's head.
- The maihi (diagonal bargeboards) signify arms; the ends of the maihi are called raparapa, meaning "fingers".
- The tāhuhu (ridge beam) represents the backbone.
- The heke or rafters signify ribs.
- The internal central column is the poutokomanawa or "heart-supporting post".
Other important components include:
Protocols
Meeting houses are the centre of any cultural, business, or any affair which is relevant to the iwi as a whole.
- Typically, visitors to the village would be allowed to stay in the meeting house at night. Visitors are allocated to the right-hand door-facing "large side" (tara whānui) while local villagers sleep on the left-hand "small side" (tara iti), very important guests sleep in the prominent space (ihu nui) under windows which are built last, whether the front window in the past or in rear rooms present.