Publications

Heritage New Zealand Magazine Magazine Request Winter 2008 Autumn 2008 Summer 2007 Spring 2007 Winter 2007 Autumn 2007 Summer 2006 Spring 2006 Winter 2006 Autumn 2006 Summer 2005 Spring 2005 Winter 2005 50th Anniversary commemorative issue Autumn 2005 Summer 2004 Spring 2004 Winter 2004 Autumn 2004 Summer 2003 Spring 2003 Winter 2003 Autumn 2003 Summer 2002 Spring 2002 NZ Historic Places Magazine May 2002 February 2002 November 2001 August 2001 May 2001 February 2001 November 2000 August 2000 May 2000 February 2000

Membership of the Historic Places Trust entitles you to a range of unique benefits including a free subscription to Heritage New Zealand magazine.

From Heritage New Zealand, Spring 2007

The Face of a Building

by Pete Kerr

Built to meet the needs of many years ago, Maori community halls face being replaced as the needs of their communities continue to change.

Te Hapa O Niu Tireni - an integral part of its landscape. Photo: Dean Whiting, NZHPT

Marae are vibrant and living communities, places where whanau, hapu, iwi and other Maori groups gather. The endurance of tradition, customs and ways of expressing ourselves provides
a culturally rich marker of identity and a yardstick for the maintenance of this identity in the face of change. One of the ways hapu and iwi nurture and sustain their identity is through buildings.

More than a century ago, strange aberrations started appearing at marae complexes around the country. Seemingly overnight, the traditional wharenui began to disappear, replaced with classic, European-inspired, town hall buildings. Gone were the ornately carved exteriors, heavily decorated tukutuku panelling and high-pitched roofs. In their place came modern building materials, such as weatherboard, windows and corrugated iron roofing.

Buildings are a significant heritage marker. Architectural design gives clues to its vintage and in the case of marae, the building site adds to its historical importance. This article features two marae buildings to show the dynamic and diverse ways Maori respond to change: Te Tii Waitangi Marae and Arowhenua Marae. Each is located on reserve land, giving a physical presence and connection to the hapu and iwi of each area.

Spiritually, the land transcends time by connecting a past and a future through its personifications of a tupuna (ancestor) and places of significant happenings, such as the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and great gatherings for land claims. Adding buildings to this cultural landscape creates a new beginning to add to its history.

The architectural style of these buildings is reminiscent of European community halls of the 1880s. Steep pitched roofs and high ceiling studs created a larger sense of space. The exterior and interior walls reflected a minimalist approach, in that walls were relatively unadorned. However, the absence of carving, kowhaiwhai and tukutuku does not lessen the significance of the buildings. Like other marae, they were sites for tribal gatherings, a place to discuss major issues and a place to celebrate joyous and sad occasions.

According to New Zealand Historic Places Trust Kaihautu (Maori Heritage Manager) Te Kenehi Teira, there were several reasons for the departure from building traditional meeting houses. “There were a number of factors involved,” says Teira, “such as the availability of materials, the comparatively low cost of building a hall, trends – the desire to keep up with what others were doing around the country – and government subsidies offered to Maori after both World Wars. But I guess the main reason for the hall’s popularity was the fact it was large enough for a great number of uses.”

The multi-purpose halls allowed Maori to take many traditionally outdoor activities inside the whare, so they could operate in all types of weather, and during the night. They also became something of a community hub for whanau, hapu and iwi, hosting traditional and ceremonial occasions, as well as social events.

“Halls were an adjustment to the changing social and economic conditions of Maori. They offered functionality, innovation and adaptation,” says Teira.

The bulk of halls are in the North Island, but several hapu communities have a hall as a focal point in the South Island as well. Time is catching up with them and as many of the buildings either reach or pass the century mark, many Maori are starting to talk about replacement.

Much of this talk has been prompted by the Treaty of Waitangi settlements, with many iwi receiving substantial financial compensation from the government and looking to modernise their marae complexes following generations of impoverishment and disempowerment. The post-settlement era has brought a new focus for many iwi, specifically in the areas of development and advancement, and the implementation of core iwi values in the modern world of business and organisation.

The potential loss of community halls is a serious issue of concern for the NZHPT, as Teira explains.“Our position is to encourage Maori communities to conserve, restore and maintain their halls in order to provide a direct link with past generations and events associated with the buildings. To provide tangible ways of linking future generations with the history and culture of their ancestors is the primary goal of retaining built heritage.”

Every marae and Maori commmunity has its own tikanga and responsibility for its taonga, including the community hall buildings they possess. The Maori Heritage Team of NZHPT supports the management by Maori communities of their heritage and encourages them to hold on to the markers, like the community halls, that provide a link for future generations to their past.

Teira says there has been little discussion amongst Maori about the intrinsic significance associated with the community hall-style marae, and when the issue has been mooted it is usually disregarded as irrelevant due to the non-traditional architectural style. “Maori communities have received the message from the NZHPT with mixed reactions. But it’s important we keep pushing the message and try and save this heritage from destruction.”

Pressure to replace Maori halls with elaborate, modern buildings may be mounting, but these buildings still have their staunch supporters.

Te Hapa O Niu Tireni

Haere mai, Haere mai, Haere mai - Ki Te whenua I haroa e Te Kahu
“Welcome to Arowhenua, that is surrounded by bush and swamp, that is watched over by the hawk.”

On a crisp autumn morning in 1905, more than 500 people gathered at Arowhenua Pa, a couple of kilometres from the South Canterbury township of Temuka, for the opening of a new Maori community hall, Te Hapa O Niu Tireni.

The event attracted many leading Maori and political figures, including Dr Maui Pomare, the country’s first Maori doctor and Minister of Health, Attorney General Colonel Pitt, Tama Parata, MP for Southern Maori, representatives from many of the South Island runanga and the Mayor of Temuka.

The large crowd and the many dignitaries were a clear early signal that this whare was destined to be an integral part of its landscape – literally, figuratively and politically. The name of the whare itself gives hint to its purpose – Te Hapa O Niu Tireni means “the grievances of New Zealand” or “the broken promise” and is a reference to the long-pursued claim of the Ngai Tahu iwi, based on unfulfilled promises made when Europeans purchased land in Canterbury, Otago and Southland from the 1840s.

However, the community hall that greeted people on that day in 1905 was not the first whare at Arowhenua to bear that name.

The original Te Hapa O Niu Tireni was a more traditional marae-style whare, complete with carvings both inside and out, and was so named by the Arowhenua runanga to voice their displeasure at the Treaty of Waitangi. It stood for almost 30 years. It was used by local Maori as a meeting place to talk through Treaty concerns and was often the venue for discussions with the government on land grievance issues before it was destroyed by fire in 1903. The new hall, paid for through a combination of government subsidy (£200) and local fundraising (£220), was moved across the road from the original whare site and took the politically charged name with it.

It also retained the same purpose as the original whare, with Maori continuing to meet in the new hall to discuss Treaty issues. So it was entirely appropriate that when the Ngai Tahu iwi renewed its Treaty of Waitangi claim in the 1980s, it held its first hui at Te Hapa O Niu Tireni. This process culminated in the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, and when the iwi’s principal treaty negotiator, Tipene O’Regan, was knighted for his work, Te Hapa O Niu Tireni was chosen as the venue, in recognition of the role it had played in the treaty process for more than a century.

The hall celebrated its centenary two years ago, but longevity and a rich heritage of leadership may not be enough to save this wonderful old whare from being replaced with something bigger, flasher and more modern.

It’s a common story around the country for the humble community hall, but if local marae member Mandy Home has her way, the runanga will be preparing for its 200th anniversary in 2105.

“There’s always someone talking about bowling the marae,” says Home. “To many of us that hall means home. When we were kids we used to love sleeping in the hall, and now my mokopuna love going there to stay, too. Everything that we’re about is symbolised in that hall. It is the glue that holds us all together.”

The hall has had some upgrades over the years. In the 1980s, money was raised to build an ablution block, dining room and new kitchen. Government work schemes have also allowed for some judicious landscaping of the gardens, and a partnership project with children from the Arowhenua Maori School has seen the redevelopment of the wetlands area around the marae.

The marae is hosting the Ngai Tahu Hui a Tau this year, which is the South Island iwi’s annual conference, and Home is determined to have the whare “looking beautiful” for the big event.

The runanga has already applied to the Lottery Grants Board for a Lottery Marae Heritage grant to carry out maintenance work.

Home says the marae is a living piece of history, complete with its own stories and memories of all the people who have called Te Hapa O Niu Tireni home for the past 102 years. “This marae is our bond with the land and our whakapapa. Some afternoons, I go and sit there and I can remember all the old people that sat there before me, their photos still hang on the marae walls.

“It’s still a comfort to know all our tipuna are still here with us. I get real comfort from our marae. The weddings, taki aue, Maori netball, tug-o-war, hui, cards/housie, action song practices and fights are all imprinted in the walls. We would lose all of that if we replaced our hall. ”

Te Tii Ki Waitangi

Te Tii Waitangi Marae is perhaps the best known Maori wharenui in the country, mainly because every February 6 images of it are beamed into our living rooms as Maori leaders, crown ministers, rank and file politicians and others congregate at Waitangi to commemorate the signing of the Treaty.

Emma Gibbs - protecting the mana of her marae. Photo: Atareiria Heihei, NZHPT

To many New Zealanders, it has become known as “The Lower Marae”, but don’t let local kuia Emma Gibbs hear anyone refer to it by that name.

“The time has come for people to realise there’s only one marae at Waitangi,’’ says Gibbs. “There’s no such thing as the Upper and Lower – that’s absolutely offensive. “The second house is a whare runanga – a house of learning – not a marae, and was built to take pressure off Te Tii. People have no right to take that mana away from our marae.”

Emma Gibbs has deep roots in Waitangi and is clearly staunchly protective of her marae, which has become intrinsically linked to the history of the relationship between Maori and Pakeha.

She is the great, great granddaughter of Ngati Kawa chief Te Kemara Kaiteke, who signed both the Declaration of Independence in 1835 and the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, as the chief of Waitangi. Te Kemara’s wife was Te Tii Puatea, and it’s possible she was the inspiration for the marae’s name. The beach at Waitangi is also called Te Tii.

The original hall built on the site where Te Tii stands today was erected in March 1881, in commemoration of the signing of the Treaty, and was appropriately called “Te Tiriti O Waitangi”. The opening of the Treaty hall was a well-occasioned event, and an excerpt from missionary Henry William’s diary shows that the same issues that concerned Maori in the 1880s still resonate today:

“The meeting was outside by the hall. It lasted about three hours and passed off quietly. The principle talk was for a new Maori Parliament and for the foreshore to be ceded to the Maori.”

Sadly, the Treaty Hall was destroyed by a gale in 1917, so the decision was made to build a new hall in its place. World War I and the global influenza epidemic that followed had decimated the northern iwi’s male population, so the task of building the new hall fell to the women of the hapu.

“A lot of people don’t realise that it was the women that built Te Tii – more specifically, the Maori Women’s League, precursor to the latter day Maori Women’s Welfare League. They had to organise getting all the rakau (timber) locally to build the marae, as well as put it all up,” says an obviously proud Gibbs. “In fact, women built most of the halls at Waitangi.”

Te Tii Marae wharenui was officially opened in March 1922 by Prime Minister William Massey, with Dr Maui Pomare on hand to translate his speech to more than 2000 people. In recent years, Te Tii has become synonymous with controversy, as Maori leaders and politicians alike have used the Waitangi Day commemorations as an opportunity for political point scoring. Maori sovereignty, the fiscal envelope, protocol issues, the foreshore and seabed debate, and even Don Brash’s Orewa speech have all made the agenda.

But that’s nothing new for a marae that was built as a place to discuss weighty issues of importance to Maori. And, as Gibbs is keen to point out, “through it all, Te Tii has retained its dignity, its mana”.

Te Tii’s place in the history of the Treaty, and by extension, to all New Zealanders is undeniable. However, that hasn’t stopped some Maori from Waitangi questioning the validity of retaining a community hall like Te Tii, when other, more modern options are available.

Not surprisingly, Gibbs has little tolerance for such talk. “This is the only marae in the country that’s open to all New Zealanders. It is a national marae, why destroy it? Less of our people want traditional marae – they want a flash new facility. This marae must be preserved, it must be retained. It cannot be pulled down and replaced with something more modern. That must never, ever happen, otherwise we may as well all just forget about being Maori.”