New marae for tourists, not tangi

By BRIDGET CARTER

A Far North tourism operator is building a meeting house just for tourists because so many others are being used for funerals.

Peter Kitchen's nearly finished meeting house Te Ohonga sits behind KFC in Commerce St, Kaitaia, the same site as his backpackers lodge, Maori tourism school and the headquarters for his tourism company, Tall Tale Tours.

He built it so he had a marae for tourists without the worry of last-minute tangi, no late bookings for kapa haka festivals and no other interruptions.

But the head of Auckland University's Maori studies department, Dr Margaret Mutu, said a marae was only truly traditional if its main purpose was for the people. "If you can't have a tangi, then it can't successfully fulfil its role."

Mr Kitchen said the project seemed like a perfect solution to a problem he kept having with marae availability a few years ago.

He would plan to take visitors through one of four marae in the district, but found that two of the four were hosting tangi and the others were suddenly booked out.

Mr Kitchen believed the new marae was the first built on private land for commercial purposes. It is several months from completion and has thick, wooden panels and rocks around the entrance.

"It is quite an interesting looking building. It has a character of its own," he said.

He has been working away on the shell of the meeting house for three years with help from Maori tutor David Barr and female carver Te Aroha Te Paa.

People have already slept inside the partly finished building.

Mr Kitchen agreed that a marae's main purpose was for its people.

What had happened, however, was that marae were increasingly becoming unavailable to tourists, as the popularity of Maori culture grew and more people chose a tangi over a funeral.

Mr Kitchen said he wanted a "learning house" where tourists could stay and for $35 hear a two-hour talk about the marae and its importance to Maori.

A marae was a popular tourist attraction, he said. People enjoyed both the artworks inside and hearing the stories connected with them.

"That is the beauty of the marae system. Each area has its own history, its own genealogy, its own story of what they believe in."