ABSTRACT

This chapter outlines the work of symbols, which provides a brief overview of Aotearoa New Zealand's biculturalism and important critiques of it. It explores several features of the Te Ahu project that argues are more than purely tokenistic incorporations of Maori cultural symbolism. The chapter focuses on some of what has been achieved in the development of Te Ahu, on the way that the more-than-just symbols incorporated in this building make a small contribution to resurfacing Te Ahu as a Maori place. The stories of Te Ahu and its pou resurface the contemporaneous and continuous belonging of iwi in the Far North that settler colonialism may have shunted aside but has never destroyed. Assessment of the governance of Te Ahu suggests that colonial business as usual continues, with iwi having, at best, a junior partner role. The chapter also focuses on the issue of the work of Indigenous symbols.