Rautao Left (cropped)

Poupou (wall post) depicting Rautao, an ancestor of the Ngāti Maru people, Thames, New Zealand. This wall post is from Hotunui, a carved meeting house built in 1878 by Ngāti Awa carvers from Whakatane, as a wedding present when Mereana Mokomoko, a woman of their tribe, married Wīrope Hōterene Taipari, a Ngāti Maru leader. The house has been in the Auckland War Memorial Museum since about 1920.

The carving is flanked by decorative tukutuku panels.