Hicks Bay, East Cape – a warrior’s story

Ani Pahuru-Huriwai came back home to Hicks Bay and saw a need for a community centre for locals in the area. When a building came available in neighbouring Horseshoe Bay, as it was then known. The exclusive bay was filled with holiday homes of largely wealthy Pakeha from the Hawke’s Bay and Bay of Plenty areas, who opposed the community centre scheme. It took three years of council and court battles before Ani and the community won the right to set it up. In the weeks which followed, those opposing the centre sold their baches and left – what locals still call the “Great White Flight” of 2005. Horseshoe Bay is now called Onepoto Bay.