Iwi plans houses on marae

Les Wakefield, on land earmarked to be the home of the Pehiaweri marae's new housing project, wants the community to be involved in the planning. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A Northland marae is aiming to bring back the traditional sense of community by building houses on the marae grounds.

Pehiaweri Marae in Glenbervie is known in the community for being lively, self-sustainable and community driven but, according to marae chairman Les Wakefield, there was a piece of the puzzle missing, and that was housing at the marae.

"We have our community garden, we have another one down the road, we have wananga, we have people coming here and learning, we have the whare karakia (church) for praying, but one thing we don't have is people living here."

The marae has kicked off a papakainga (Maori housing) project to build dwellings on the grounds of the marae. Mr Wakefield said the project was about keeping culture alive and sparking a strong sense of community.

"You think of how communities were traditionally, not only Maori communities but communities in general. They were small, they were self-driven, they had their own kai."

The project is in the early stages but Mr Wakefield said even the planning and construction of the housing would be driven by the community.

"You know it's easy enough to get one contract and say here do this, but we want this to involve the community. We want it to be collaborative.

"NorthTec for example, we value their level of expertise in engineering and managing. We have whanau members with various expertise and a retired engineer in the community, his expertise is invaluable. It's about that conjoint between the community and the marae," he said.

Mr Wakefield said the criteria which would decide who would be living in the housing had not yet been decided but they needed to be involved in the marae.

"It will definitely be for people who are in need, and we noticed a lot of the people in our community are in need, and absolutely they'd need to be involved. It wouldn't work if people were to stay in the houses and not get involved, whether it be planning projects or management."

Mr Wakefield said so far the marae whanau had spoken to a range of different organisations about the project, including the Whangarei District Council, Te Puni Kokiri, NorthTec, Te Wananga o Te Taitokerau and Whangarei Accessible Housing Trust.

"One of the big issues is financing and that's where a lot of iwi and hapu who set up Maori housing struggle, so we've been talking to Te Puni Kokiri about funding. I'd say it'd cost an excess of $1 million."

Mr Wakefield said a maximum of eight houses could be built on the marae but no decision had been made about what size the houses would be.

He added the infrastructure stage was the hardest part.