Mission to raise flood-hit marae

Karangahape Marae secretary Robert Rush (left), chairman Roger Kingi and kaumatua Rawiri Timoti want to rebuild the marae out of reach of floods. PHOTO / PETER DE GRAAF

A Northland marae hit by floods at least eight times sicne 2003 is to be rebuilt out of reach of floodwaters.

Karangahape Marae, at Te Touwai (Matangirau), near Whangaroa Harbour, was swamped earlier this month when the 'Tasman Tempest' dumped more than 200mm of rain. That made at least eight floods since 2003, and the community has had enough.

Water streams through the kitchen at Karangahape Marae. PHOTO / SUPPLIED

This time the wharenui was awash with 15cm of water and silt, while water from the flooded Te Touwai Stream was half a metre deep in the kitchen. It was the worst flooding at the marae since July 2007.

Marae chairman Roger Kingi said each flood damaged the floor and wall linings, but the real damage was emotional, as people connected to the marae, which was uninsurable, saw the floods on social media.

The biggest problem was the silt, he said. Volunteers had to get to work with squeegees before the water receded, and it was fortunate people in the valley were always ready to pitch in.

"They're pretty resilient. When you live here you get used to it. You just have to get the mud out," Mr Kingi said.

The ancestral photos lining the walls were high enough to stay out of the water but were still damaged by damp. One of the greatest treasures, a whakapapa scroll, had been moved out of the wharenui and was being restored.

Whanau had offered various pieces of land in the valley for a new marae, but most were at least as flood prone. They had considered buying land on a nearby hill, but the cost was prohibitive, and eventually it was decided to rebuild on the same site.

A meeting was called on Saturday to decide betwen two options - building a new marae on piles about 1.5m above the current level, or raising the land itself using the "block and fill" method.

Attendees at the meeting decided to rebuild on piles, subject to council consent.

Marae secretary Robert Rush, whose own home nearby had more than a metre of water through it, said the dream of a new marae went back to 1972.

Fundraising stepped up 10 years ago, with $400,000 raised, mostly by holding wananga (seminars) under the auspices of Te Wananga o Awanuiarangi. He was confident the rest of the roughly $1.5 million needed would be raised through grants.

A modest whare was planned, only a little larger than the current one, so it would not be too costly to maintain. If possible native timber from the old marae would be salvaged and reused.

Mr Kingi said the wharenui was built around 1920 as a community hall of sorts. Family disagreements saw it put on a sledge and dragged up the valley by bullock teams, then dragged back down again years later.

In 1948 all three hapu agreed on the current site, with the kitchen, dining hall and toilets added in the 1970s.

After the 2003 flood floated the wharenui off its puriri foundations Mr Kingi put in proper concreted piles, and it hadn't budged since then.

Kaumatua Rawiri Timoti said, like the current marae, the new building would be "open to the wide world," with an emphasis on education, not just events such as tangihanga.

He joked that Karangahape was the only marae where a Bachelor's degree was needed to sit on the taumata (speaker's bench).