Project Overview
Client
Te Ao Mārama School, James Webster (Artist)
Location
Te Ao Mārama School, Hamilton
Date Completed
2024
Services
Consultancy
Design
Cut. Fold. Build.
Installation
Here Pāwaha o Te Kura o Te Ao Mārama is a stainless steel gateway that boldly defines the threshold of Te Ao Mārama School in Hamilton.
About the Artwork
The pāwaha was created by artist James Webster (Tainui, Te Arawa) and stands 5.5 metres tall in highly finished stainless steel. The material was chosen for its brightness and longevity — properties that suit both the school setting and the symbolic weight the work is asked to carry.
Design and Meaning
A pāwaha draws on the concept of a waka pou maumahara — the old practice of decommissioning a waka and standing it upright in memory of a person or event. Here, that form becomes a gateway in and out of the school, marking where hospitality begins.
Passing through this gateway, students, whānau, and visitors move from a state of Te Pō (darkness, unknowing) into Te Ao Mārama (enlightenment and understanding). The name carries the school’s purpose into its physical entrance.
Engineering and Artisanship
Stainless steel at this scale demands meticulous fabrication — clean welds, controlled finishes, and accurate geometry — so the form reads as a single, considered object rather than an assembly of parts. Our team worked closely with James Webster to translate his design into a structure that is durable, safe for a school environment, and faithful to the meaning behind the work.
A New Landmark for Te Ao Mārama School
Pāwaha o Te Kura o Te Ao Mārama is the result of close collaboration between the artist, the school community, and Longveld. It gives the kura a literal and symbolic threshold — a way of welcoming people in, and a daily reminder of what learning here is for.
See it in Person
The pāwaha stands at the entrance of Te Ao Mārama School in Hamilton, where it greets the school community and visitors each day.
