Keeping faith with mud bricks

The Rastas at Ruatoria have mellowed from their fiery days, reports SIMON COLLINS

Ruatoria Rastafarians, who were jailed for a string of arsons in the East Coast town over a decade ago, have turned to building mud-brick houses.

The Rastas have built one house and hope to build more. They also want to rebuild the town's RSA club to incorporate a museum of the Maori Battalion.

"At one time the Rastas were seen as a problem in Ruatoria," said one of their leaders, John Heeney. "But we are a solution."

Mr Heeney, who was sentenced to six years' jail in 1989 for burning down the Ruatoria courthouse, saw his own house burned by "vigilantes" the night he was arrested.

More than 30 buildings in the district were burned between 1985 and 1992 in a conflict between police, a residents patrol group and the Rastafarians, who were reported to have 100 to 150 followers at their peak.

In 1990, the Rastafarian leader, Chris Campbell, was killed in a shootout with farmer Luke Donnelly. Since then the number of Rastas on the Coast has dwindled to around 30.

John Heeney said local Rastas saw the Jamaican reggae icon Bob Marley as a prophet in the same tradition as Te Kooti, an East Coast Maori military leader and founder of the Ringatu Church in the nineteenth century.

"We were Rastas because we wanted to take the Maori side of things. We had a good group of fighters," he said.

"Now we just flip the coin over. We had to go back to our own prophets. After years of listening to Brother Bob, things started getting deeper for us."

He said the idea of building with earth bricks came from a teacher, Joe Tawhai.

"Ever since then it's been there, the seed was planted," he said.

"When we finally got out of jail, the brothers were sleeping up under the stars, the women were in the cars."

He refused to work in forestry, which he saw as the local version of Black slaves on American cotton plantations.

He refused to move to the city.

"We wanted our culture," he said. "If we had never started seeking it, then I can't imagine where we'd be today. We'd be in the city succeeding. To us, that is a terrible thing because then we might end up staying there and dying there."

Three years ago Mr Heeney and another Rasta went to Nelson to learn mud-brick building techniques from an expert, Richard Walker.

They built the first house last summer with students from Gisborne's Tairawhiti Polytechnic.

Mr Heeney, who lives in the first house, cut off his dreadlocks in September after 19 years.

"I grew dreadlocks to affirm myself to my faith. I have cut my dreads to rededicate myself to my faith," he said.

"At one time we were scaring people away. Now the tables are turned round and we are building sustainable communities, friendly to the countryside, the less chemicals the better."

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