''The University Marae, Waipapa, is the focal point for Māori student life at The University of Auckland. It is situated next to the Department of Māori Studies at 16 Wynyard Street. The complex was built to provide a fitting environment for teaching and research in Māori Studies and to encourage greater Māori and Pacific Island student attendance and participation at the University. It also provides a place where visitors can be formally welcomed to the campus.
The Marae is for the benefit and support of the entire University community. Departments can negotiate to use the facilities for appropriate functions. University staff are encouraged to visit the whare whakairo (meeting house), Tāne-nui-ā-Rangi. Unlike many whare whakairo on tribal marae, this house represents all major tribes. The wharenui was opened 20th February 1988.
The symbolic conception of Tānenuiārangi the meeting-house on Waipapa Marae, was formulated by the tohunga whakairo Pākariki Harrison. The primary ancestors of the house are the ancestor-gods, with whom students of all tribes can identify. Around the walls are the captains and priest-navigators of the canoes that brought the ancestors of the different tribes to New Zealand in the fourteenth century. Also included in the house is Tangi'ia, an ancestor who connects the major islands of the Pacific with New Zealand. Thus, the house is pan-Pacific as well as pan-tribal.
The marae on which Tānenuiārangi stands is named after Waipapa the landing place of canoes on what is now Beach Road opposite the Railway station. The name acknowledges Ngāti Whātua ki Orākei as the tangata whenua of Waitematā. Logs of tōtara and kauri were donated by Ngāti Hine for the carving of the house, and they were formally visited by a deputation from the University to thank them for their gift.
Although Māori Studies uses the marae throughout the week for language classes and seminars, it is not the sole preserve of the department. The marae is used by all departments and faculties of the university, for conferences, live-ins, seminars and other teaching purposes. The marae is often booked months ahead for ceremonial welcomes for international conferences. On formal occasions, Māori Studies staff and students are the tangata whenua of the marae. On important ceremonial occasions Ngāti Whātua kaumātua also take a leading role on the paepae.
According to Merimeri Penfold, there were two attempts to establish a marae at Auckland University. The first was taken by Matt Te Hau and Pat Hōhepa and one of the goals was for it to entice Māori students to university. They proposed to turn a rugby shed on campus into a marae facility. They made submissions to the council but it was turned down on the basis that it was a student facility they were converting.
Anne Salmond and Merimeri picked it up a little while later and tweaked the proposal by highlighting the need for a marae as a teaching facility and they were successful.
Their committee was called Tuia and was run by Bob Kerr (Tainui). Overall it took around 10-15 years to get the ok.'' TVNZ; tvnz.co.nz; 13/05/2008