2015
Miria Marae
To preserve, revitalise and bring whānau together
Miria Marae has been gearing towards a redevelopment for 20 years. We now have a design underway, with resource consent approved. Taitamariki from our Futures! programme have played a big role in the early stages of the project – spending time exploring the area and listening to the stories and history from kaumātua. Whenua from the 13 different marae of Ngāti Hine will be brought to the site and layered to form a beautiful rammed earth wall that links the spaces and wraps around the wharenui, Te Rapunga. After taitamariki came up with this concept, they presented at the AGM and it was incredibly well received by the board. Wahooo! The integration of taitamariki into this design process proved to us that our approach really does work. Young people have great ideas and the project outcomes are appropriate and beautifully rich.
What an amazing and thoughtful presentation that ĀKAU and our rangatahi made to the trustees. Please know how proud we are of you all. You have clearly taken the time with Uncle Percy, our kōrero and our documentation. This is a special kaupapa. This is a special time.
– Kate Cherrington
It has been a long journey for our whānau, you’ve created a legacy for us, for our mokopuna to write down in our history. So I just wanted to acknowledge ĀKAU, the wahine toa, having women lead the path and then having our rangatahi build the concept and being given the opportunity to do that. I’m so grateful and honoured to be in your presence.
– Kate Cherrington