Marae are considered the Community hubs of Te Ao Maaori or the Maaori world. They are the centres of cultural excellence for whaanau, hapuu and iwi. Today, there is a concerted effort to revitalise these commuity hubs, their facilities, and the culture. The Ministry of Maaori Development, Te Puni Kokiri and the Department of Internal Affairs, Te Tari Taiwhenua have dedicated significant energy and resource to the Oranga Marae programme. The programme offers support, advice and investment that maybe used on building projects and activities to revive culture and knowledge. Regional, District and Local funders also make a significant contribution to the revitalisation of marae. The programme is further enhanced by hapuu and iwi organisation who have prioritised marae development and have also devoted time, resource, and investment toward the revival of marae.

Our contribution to marae revitalisation

Community Waikato recognizes that Marae are a key feature of the cultural infrastructure within Maaori society. We see that they act as guardians of maatauranga (knowledge) and taonga (precious heirlooms) and connecting whaanau through whakapapa (family connections). We understand that marae are held as sacred to the living, and a memorial to the departed. They serve as the custodian of traditional knowledge and of the whakapapa that connects its members. More importantly, they are considered the foundation upon which Maaori preserve and strengthen their identity.

So, it is appropriate that Community Waikato has also dedicated resource toward marae development. This resource is a result of the organisations strategic intent to support Maaori communities and Maaori development. Community Waikato considers it a privilege to offer our range of community development services and supports to contribute to the programme of marae revitalisation.

The Kaiwhakarite service

Community Waikato is widely acknowledged throughout the Tainui waka region for the broad range of services and supports they provide to the community sector. All of the community advisors are experts in their own right, which many of the Kumara Vine readers may attest to. The Kaiwhakarite programme offers the same set of services but are delivered slightly different. Maybe that difference can be described as simply a different set of facilitation approaches.

The Kaiwhakarite service emerged out of the 2013 Board review of Community Waikato engagement with Maaori and Maaori organisations. In 2014 the Kaiwhakarite role was readvertised and a new appointment was made.

Work began immediately on building an engagement plan, testing, and initiating a pilot. With the success of the pilot it wasn’t long before the role became completely focused on Maaori engagement and Maaori development.

By mid-2019 the Kaiwhakarite service was increased by one and in early 2020 it was expanded further with the appointment of a part time Kaiwhakarite. This brings the Community Waikato Maaori development team to 2.5 full time equivalent.

The team is led by Gary Thompson. Gary is of Ngaati Paaoa and Ngaati Hauaa descent with ties to Waiti, Kaia-te-mata and Rukumoana marae. Gary has many years of Maaori development experience. Kiri Karu joined the team in 2019. She is from Hauraki and of Ngaati Tara Tokanui. Her marae is Ngahutoitoi. Genae Thompson joined the team early 2020. Her ties are to Te Taitokerau and Ngaati Tuwharetoa. Her marae are Ngaa Whaa ki Ohaewai and Waihii ki Taupo.

Community Waikato marae development programme

Community Waikato piloted the marae development programme with Kai-a-te-mata marae in late 2014. The pilot was a collaboration between Community Waikato and Waikato Tainui, Tribal Development Unit led by Tui Kaa. The focus of the pilot was to guide the marae whaanau through a waananga to create a long-term strategic view of their future.

Developing the marae strategic plan is at the foundation of the marae development work we offer. Creating a safe and comfortable space to recall the old stories, value past contributions and to dream of the future they want for their mokopuna or grandchildren, is essential. When done right, a good strategic plan will not only capture the clarity of purpose and shared vision of the future, but it celebrates everything that has occurred over the years, and that has bought them to where they are today.

Participants feeling at ease, to dreams the dream is the key. A great leader once said, “if I dream, I dream alone. But if we dream together, together, we can make the dream a reality” (Te Puia Herangi). Clarity of purpose provides the framework to distil the goals and action of the vision. While prioritisation creates the schedule of actions that when complete, will deliver the dreams and aspirations of the people.

So, you might ask, what is different about that? The answer is multi-faceted. First, giving voice to the old stories helps the older generations share their memories, the laughter, the sadness, the anger, the music, the cheekiness, and the happiness. Some of these stories the younger participants may never have heard before. More often, each story is a reference to a person, a proud stately rangatira, a kuia of high regard or an uncle and his short-cuts. This is the part we call, “looking back”. The next part is “today”. What strengths are there among the whaanau, what skills and expertise do whaanau members bring to the gathering? Together these two parts provide the foundation for the third part, “future”. This is where whaanau members are asked to dream, imagine the future they want to see for their grandchildren. Lay them out for all to see, admire, critique, and enhance. This is also, where everyone’s ideas are bought together to see if they fall into natural categories or themes. Prioritisation is the fourth part of the programme. Giving every participant a voice. A voice to determine of all the categories listed, which three things are the most important to each individual. Again, this is another very crucial aspect of the programme. It prevents the loudest person in the whaanau from dominating the debate about which thing is the most important. And as noted earlier, even the quietest person gets to have a voice. The result is a set of priorities that every participant can own.

The Kai-a-te-mata marae experience

Kai-a-te-mata marae whaanau spent a day and a half together to share stories, dream the dream and create their plan. With their strategic plan finalised in March 2015, they had a clear map of where they were going and how they would get there.

Their first 6 priorities out of 11 were; 1) charter and governance review, 2) waananga, including tiikanga, Hauaatanga, history, and te reo, 3) funding, 4) new ablutions block, 5) a new wharenui (meeting house), and 6) a multi-purpose, whare waananga facility.

Kai-a-te-mata marae. Dawn blessing before the demolition of the old Wharenui to allow for the rebuild of the new Wharenui July 2020

Today, priorities 1 to 4 have been addressed with waananga continuing through various forums. Construction of the wharenui, priority 5, is underway and the building consents for priority 6 has been lodged with Matamata Piako District Council. Construction of the multi-purpose, whare-waananga is planned to begin early 2021.

The last bit of difference

Kai-a-te-mata whaanau reviewing priority 5, new Wharenui plans 2020.

The Kaiwhakarite team make a deliberate effort to create unique vision and mission statements for each marae development plan. Statements that help to memorialise the “why” of the strategy. Statements that by their uniqueness alone will help keep the strategic objectives at the forefront of whaanau thinking. In our experience those statements are usually hidden in the midst of the stories that were shared in the first 2 parts of the planning workshop.

“Iti te kupu, nui te whakaaro” was the title of a presentation I was to make to the Community Waikato 2019 Conference, but illness prevented my appearance. “Small words with great depth of meaning” express our approach to create meaningful vision statements.

Oranga Marae

A key goal of the programme is to strengthen the ability of marae to pass on their ancestral knowledge of whaikōrero, karanga and local mātauranga, tikanga and kawa to descendants.

Oranga Marae supports these outcomes:

marae are safe and healthy, contributing to the well-being of iwi, hapū and whānau
people are engaged on the marae and an increasing number of events and activities are held to ensure the transmission of mātauranga Māori
marae increasingly contribute to the revitalisation of te reo and tikanga Māori
whānau work together to develop the marae www.tpk.govt.nz/en/whakamahia/oranga-marae

Conclusion

Marae Development Plans are a prerequisite to accessing government marae development and capital works funds. The opportunity to access that resource is here and now. Never has there been a better time to embark on the journey to revitalise our cultural centres of excellence, our marae.

Noreira, kia kaha ra tatou katoa

“Ko te mauri o te puna, te oranga o te iwi” With life force and vitality of the spring restored, so to, has the health wealth and wellbeing returned to the people — “Ko te mauri o te puna, te oranga o te iwi”
With life force and vitality of the spring restored, so to, has the health wealth and wellbeing returned to the people

Gary Thompson

Kaiwhakarite, Community Waikato

Community Development with Maaori Organisations