A new wharekai has finally opened its doors and is ready to serve its whānau.
Kerepēhi Marae received funding from the Te Puni Kōkiri Oranga Marae fund for the build but the project was a long time coming given issues faced amid the Covid pandemic.
The opening of Tutu Hauaru persuaded the many descendants of Kerepēhi Marae to return for the opening,
Marae chair and kaumātua Hēmi Kaka says the occasion was momentous given the time put into the build.
“Pai tēnei rā ki a mātou. Kotahi tau me te hāwhe e tatari ana mātou ki tēnei rā.”
This was a great day for us. We’ve been waiting for this day for one and a half years.
On Saturday the walls of Tutu Hauaru were blessed and all of the struggles of the past years were pushed to the side.
Covid era challenges
Project manager and descendant of the marae Lester Te Ohaere Fox was happy to see whānau walk through the doors of this new build.
“We had challenges because we came through that Covid era, with a lack of materials and sickness through the whānau, through our contractors. So that put us in a bit of a delay. We were about six months over but to us that was kei te pai,” he said..
Ngāti Paoa trustee chairman Herearoha Francis Skipper was also in attendance and talked about the difficulties in taking on a build like this.
“Koirā te taumaha o tēnei o ngā kaupapa, hanga pūtea, kia oti ai tēnei kāre anō kia oti, ka whakatika te taha o ngā wharepaku ana ka titiro ki tō mātou wharenui he mahi e haere tonu ana. Engari, ka tuwhera te kīhini i tēnei rā, ā, ka taea te tuwhera i te marae mō ngā kaupapa e heke mai nei.”
That is one of the hardships with projects like these, finding money to complete these builds although it’s not quite finished. We still need to work on the toilets, then look at our meeting house, there’s still some stuff to be done. But, now the kitchen is open, we can now open the marae to all sorts of events in the future, she said.
The whānau are now looking to what’s next for their marae.
Big plans
That starts with the Hauraki Ahure,i which is being held at Kerepēhi marae next year and Skipper is excited many wānanga can be held to encourage descendants of Kerepēhi to return home more often.
“Tino hīkaka mātou o tēnei marae ka taea te whakatū wānanga. Tērā kaupapa hirahira, wānanga reo, wānanga hītori, wānanga ngahau mō ngā uri whakaheke mō ngā tamariki mokopuna tēnei o ngā marae, kia hoki hoki tonu mai, kia hoki hoki mai rātou e noho ki taone kē.”
We’re super excited that this marae can now host wānanga. Those amazing projects, language wānanga, history wānanga, entertaining wānanga for our future generations, for our children of this marae and encourage them to come back home, those ones who live in other towns.