The papakāinga development at Te Āwhina Marae in Motueka. Photo: Te Āwhina Marae
The papakāinga development at Te Āwhina Marae in Motueka.
Twenty homes in a new papakāinga development at Te Āwhina Marae in Motueka are expected to be ready by early next year.
The $15 million project, the largest of its kind in Te Tauihu o te Waka-a-Māui (the top of the South Island), is being hailed as a game-changer.
In all, 20 low-cost rental whare with three or four bedrooms are under construction, with the first four due for completion next month, another eight by Christmas and the final eight homes expected to be ready by early 2024. Also under construction is a shared community space for whānau tenants.
Te Āwhina Marae board chair Rima Piggott said the papakāinga had been a long-held dream and carried huge significance.
"This is not just a housing development, it is a game changer, for our whānau and for our wider community. There are so many benefits wrapped up in this project, whether we are talking socially, culturally, or even economically.
"We are providing a safe, warm space for whānau who have challenges accessing affordable rentals and at the same time we are strengthening and supporting one another through our collective values of manaakitanga, or caring for each other, kaitiakitanga, being good stewards, and rangatiratanga in reo and tikanga."
Tūmoana Tahuri, Kauri Stephens and Pahia Ikin, pictured with Whānau Engagement Co-ordinator Rōpata Stephens. The project marks the start of a building apprenticeship with Scott Construction - an opportunity the marae redevelopment team had built-in as part of the tender conditions. Photo: Te Āwhina Marae
The project would connect whānau back to their land and culture and strengthen the whole community, she said.
The papakāinga project is part of a larger $28m redevelopment plan for the marae, including construction of a space for a trades and technology hub with accommodation, a new wharekai, wharenui, and office and auxiliary buildings.
Four of the 20 whare are on their way to completion, ready for whānau to move in next month. Photo: Te Āwhina Marae
Four of the 20 whare are on their way to completion, ready for whānau to move in next month.
The first modern building on site at Te Āwhina Marae was Te Āhurewa Church, built in 1897 to replace Te Āmate, which had been destroyed by fire. Sixty years later, in 1958, the wharekai opened, utilising some of the old school buildings at Hau, a side school of Motueka District School, which was split off to become Parklands School in 1956.
"In those days, there was nowhere for Māori to gather, so the wharekai was opened as a place where our people, in particular the seasonal workers who had come from all over the country to harvest tobacco and hops, could come together," Piggott said.
"By the late 1980s, our whānau had acquired some other government buildings that were going to be demolished and in 1990 we opened our wharenui, Turangāpeke. Two years after that, we had our six kaumātua flats built and tenanted.
"I look out here now at the whare under construction, and am just so thrilled for us, for our whānau, for our tūpuna, for our mokopuna. This is a thriving marae, and to be able to have whānau living here, playing an active role, while also having the support to achieve the aspirations of their own whānau, it's a dream come true really, for all of us."