The ancestral images depict:
- HOTUOPE - Hoturoa's son
- HOTUMATAPU - Hotuope's son
- MOTAl - Hotumatapu's son
- UE - Motai's son
Hotuope and Hotumatapu are listed in all Tainui migration accounts as having come on the Tainui Canoe, and some say Motai also came with his parents as an infant in arms.
3. Turning to the two carved supports (amo) for the gables maihi, we note two figures on each of the amo. The two on our right, as we look at the house are:
- RAKAMAOMAO - on top, and his son
- KAKATI
4. On the mahau, or porchway, there are four wall figures on the right, behind the amo we have just described. These images are representations of the following ancestors:
- MANGO - (The Shark) Mango was the origin of the Ngati Mango, a fighting tribe of the Kawhia Harbour lands, until they were displaced by the Ngati Toarangatira.
- KAIHAMU - (The Eater of Scraps) A high priest of renown with power to kill by uttering spells. He was also a warrior, and it was as a result of a victory over the redoubtable Rangihouhiri, of the tribe of Nga Oho of the Tauranga-Te Puke district that he won the hand of Tuparahaki, the much sought after widow of the Waitaha high chief, Tukutehe.
- URUTIRA - The son of Kaihamu and the Arawa chieftainess, Tuparahaki, married Kearangi, formerly of the Marokopa district.
- TUPAHAU - A warrior who was destined to oust the invading Waikato tribes under their fighting leaders, Tamaoho and Rakapare, from his mother's ancestral lands in the valley of the Marokapa river.
5. Turning to our left we have the two figures on the front amo, or gable support; and these represent:
- TUHIANGA - on top, and his son,
- POUTAMA - The decendants of Poutama are numerous in the land.
Through his son, Mango, as the founder of powerful Kawhia tribes, we have the source of much of the romance and stirring history of Kawhia and its people.
6. Re-entering the mahau we take note of the four carved wall images on our left. The figures from the outer one to the corner are:
- HAUMIA - and in chronological order of generations to his great-grandson, Whaita:
- WHATA-A-KAI
- WHARE-E-RERE
- WHAITA - Whaita was one of the foremost war leaders of the Tainui tribes.
Arising out of the death of one of his wives at the hands of the "People of the Pumice lands," the Ngati Kahupungapunga, in the Putaniru district, Whaita and his able lieutenants, Tamatehura, Wairangi, Upokoiti and Pipito wages relentless warfare against these people.
Finally at Pohaturoa, on the banks of the Waikato river below Atiamuri, Whaita and his army annihilated the Ngati Kahupungapunga.
7. On entering the house we shall proceed in the same order as was observed in the kawa, or solemn Dedication.
We shall perambulate anti-clockwise from the right and round the house and back to the doorway. The first two figures, facing the rear of the house, are of the two famous brothers:
- WHATIHUA (The Fruit I gathered)
- TURONGO (The Renowned and Upstanding One).
The story of rivalry of these two brothers from their childhood days, until they finally married their respective wives from the Takitimu and Aotea peoples, is one of the life stories of Kawhia that lives on in the minds of the Tainui people.
Whatihua alienated the affections of his brother's betrothed, Ruaputahanga and installed her in his commodious house, Wharenui, on the southern shores of the Aotea Harbour.
His brother, Turongo, dismantled his house (later named Whare o Ngarue, the House of the Earthquake) when he lost his betrothed.
He went to Haretaunga, now called Hawkes Bay, and at Kahotea, near the present site of Te Aute Boys' College he won the heart of the daughter of the high chief, Tuaka.
She was the famous puhi (a virgin-usually a chieftain's daughter-specially set apart) and much sought after beauty of the East Coast tribes, Mahinarangi (The Moon glow of the Heavens).
The full life story of Whatihua and Tuirongo may be read in "Mahinarangi, the Moon-glow of the Heavens" (1945) by the present author.
8. Proceeding along the right side, or the iho nui, of the house-the place of honour in all Maori meeting houses-we shall come (in the corner) to two taniwha figures.
They are two of several depicted in these carvings which have not been individually named.
For our purpose they come under the all-embracing designation of "Waikato taniwha rau" (Waikato and its hundred dragons)