Whangarei Urban

EPISODE SUMMARY: On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, we visit Whangarei, Northland’s largest city to examine the role of carvers, visual artists and planners in creatively interpreting our cultural narratives and re-inscribing our identity as tangata whenua into the urban fabric.

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GUESTS: Bernadette Aperahama, Te Warihi Hetaraka, David Badham

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FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake: Whangarei-Terenga-Paraoa. Named for the meeting place of the chiefs, and the historic waiting place of Reipae. But when you look around Whangarei City, there isn’t much that locates us and reflects our identity as tangata whenua.

Bernadette Aperahama: I don’t see that Whangarei, visually, looks like a Māori City. I mean the people, of course. It's not represented in the built environment, and that's sad to me. It must sad for our people, and it must sad for our tangata whenua. How do they see themselves in the actual City?

JK: That was Bernadette Aperahama, nō Ngāti kahu ki Whangaroa raua ko Te Arawa. Bernadette is a planner living and working in Whangarei.

BA: I think there is quite a lot to change in terms of how we enable Māori to be represented in this whole district, from an actual governance representation in our political landscape within local government, all the way through staff, within government agencies, seeing more Māori faces in here, and building the capacity of staff to work with Māori, all the way through to having in a proactive space a values system, and having our tangata whenua represented in the entire spectrum. We’re really lacking in that

I don’t see Māori in the built environment, if that's where the focus is. and I don't think the hau kāinga would see themselves in the built environment. And I don't think our hau kāinga would see themselves having much influence at this stage through the entire development of what this City looks.

JK: Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode three.

I’m your host Jade Kake and this is Indigenous Urbanism, stories about the spaces we inhabit, and the community drivers and practitioners who are shaping those environments and decolonising through design.

On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism we visit Whangarei, Northland’s largest city, to examine the role of carvers, visual artists and planners in creatively re-interpreting our cultural narratives and re-inscribing our identity as tangata whenua into the urban fabric.

To learn more about the potential for expression of tangata whenua identity through public art, we sat down to have a kōrero with Tohunga Whakairo Te Warihi Hetaraka.

Te Warihi Hetaraka: Ko Te Warihi Hetaraka tōku nei ingoa. Nō Whangaruru au, ahau wā i tipu ake au ki Whangaruru i whānau i ahu kei Whangarei hōhipera. My name is Te Warihi. I'm from Whangaruru. I was born in Whangarei. So yeah, Te Uri o Hikihiki. Raised out in Whangaruru. Grew up there, then left home when I was sixteen to go to Rotorua to learn whakairo. I was chosen then. That's why that connection to all the tribes is important, because when I was sent away, I was sent to represent all of the tribes or hapū of Tai Tokerau.

It’s the re-establishing of our carved meeting houses and our marae complexes that will help us regain our identity as Māori, I feel. In fact, I know it will. And it was partly the reason why I was sent away, was to bring that back to Northland.

JK: We met with Te Warihi at the site of the proposed Hihiaua cultural centre, located on the Hihiaua Peninsula in central Whangarei. The project is slated to be a significant statement of tangata whenua identity in the City, and once complete, the precinct will include a performance stage, conference centre & theatre, and an exhibition hall. Currently there’s an existing boatshed on site, which houses an office and a carving workshop.

TWH: The idea of developing the cultural centre came from our rangatira and our elders, Whangarei back in the day. It first started around about 1980, but they didn't really start to talk about it until 1993, when they were developing the town basin. But the original people that raised it were Charlie Kake, Jimmy Pou, Violet Pou, Hane Kingi, Sissy Pitman. There was over forty or so kaumātua from around Whangarei. So those are just a few of the names of the elders, that's both Charlie and Ben of course, were involved at the beginning.

I think it was mostly because they saw that our younger generation weren't sort of involving themselves in their culture or their tikanga. But also that period too, kapa haka and all of that sort of stuff started to spring up. All the tikanga stuff started to drop off. So they saw the cultural centre, in their minds the cultural centre was a place where our people could re-establish their identity as Māori. It was in 1993 when the Council asked for Māori input to the development of the town bas...