A building in which a Maori family lives and sleeps.
it was a superior wharepuni in which a high ranking person and his family lived
Example sentencesExamples
The free-standing type of wharepuni, without earthed-up walls, were constructed of less-durable materials and became more popular after the arrival of Europeans.
Most Maori continued to live in wharepuni, and from the 1870s some of these included European materials, such as doorknobs, nails, sawn timber, and glazed windows.
He noted that the wharepunis were void of ventilation and reeking with tobacco smoke.
Their dwellings were rectangular in shape and resembled those of their former homes in Polynesia, and this basic form became the wharepuni.
Pictured is a Maori family outside a whare puni near Masterton.
Traditional wharepuni had a proportion of length to breadth of about 2 to 1.
The wharepuni was used during his lifetime and was in use for some time after the passing away of his wife.
These early communities featured a variety of building types, but the most common type was the wharepuni.
There was a single space inside with a central passage and hearth, but smaller wharepuni had no central passage.
He was brought up in the bush, pig hunting with his father, where they would build small wharepuni to stay in for days at a time
Origin
Early 20th century: from Maori whare 'house' + puni 'group, company'.