Robbie Williams (yellow singlet) onsite with Raetihi whānau and the team from Sills van Bohemen Architects. Photo / Supplied
Robbie Williams (yellow singlet) onsite with Raetihi whānau and the team from Sills van Bohemen Architects. Photo / Supplied
Raetihi's Whare Whakamoemiti restoration project is ready for the next step in its journey.
Building consent documents for the restoration of the 100-year-old Rātana Temepara (temple) at Raetihi Marae were finalised this month.
The project is being led by Āpotoro rēhita koro Robbie Williams, and over the past five years te Pariha o Raetihi (the parish) has been working with architects and structural engineers to ensure the temple will stand for another century.
Williams said the idea was born following a discussion he had with his daughter before she died.
"She said we needed to do something about our church, our house of prayer.
According to Burgess' heritage assessment, the cladding on the two towers is broken in places and those parts of the building are not currently watertight.
Structural framing is water stained but not visibly damaged.
The older church building has been re-clad with profiled metal sheet cladding and the original timber windows have been removed and replaced by aluminium joinery.
These new joinery openings are not fully weather tight and the jamb liners and sills are deteriorating.
Christina van Bohemen (left) and Robbie Williams take measurements at the Raetihi Temepara. Photo / Liz Brooker
Williams said the building began life as a Methodist church before it was switched to the Rātana faith in the 1950s.
The towers, symbolic of the Rātana Church, were then added.
"Only in the last two weeks I was cutting wood and an elderly man came over and asked what I was up to.
"I told him I was fundraising to restore the church in Raetihi. He said he was there when his father put the domes on it.
"It was the same guy who built the Bridge to Nowhere."
The bridge was built by Raetihi firm Sandford and Brown, for the Public Works Department.
When he stood inside the bell tower to ring the bells for whakamoemiti (praise), he wondered why it hadn't fallen, Williams said.
"It's because we, the mōrehu, have our whakamoemiti here. It's our power of prayer and our Rātana faith that is keeping this whare standing."
For many years the building lacked any spouting on the west side of the main roof, the heritage assessment states.
Other rainwater goods have been poorly installed.
The years of water run-off from the roof have contributed to issues with general dampness and decay of the building fabric, and has also resulted in some slumping of the foundations.
The building has no thermal insulation and the existing tower structure - foundations, structure and cladding - are in poor condition.
The next step is to raise that money, and the project will begin as soon as it is financially possible, Williams said.
Participants in the 1975 Māori Land March gathered outside the marae near Te Whare Whakamoemiti in Raetihi. Photo / Christian Heinegg (from the National Library of New Zealand Collection)
The renovations will cost about $1 million.
"We already have several applications in for funding.
"While we are celebrating this milestone and all the whānau who have been supporting us along this journey now, some of the hardest mahi starts in finding the pūtea (funds).
"The Whare Whakamoemiti is such an important whare and we acknowledge that this is not only to us as mōrehu, our Raetihi whānau and wider Aotearoa community."
"I've had people come from India, Arabia, America and Japan.
"There was even a group from a museum in Germany, two van loads came over.
"I asked them how they found out about this. They said they saw a photo of it in the Women's Weekly."
Māori architectural expert Professor Deidre Brown said she hoped the pūtea could be found quickly.
"The Whare Whakamoemiti is at a critical turning point in its life.
"If action is not taken now to repair the building it will not be possible to save it, and its loss would mark the closing of an important chapter in central North island Māori architecture."
