October 10, 2017
Tauranga museum site search for mauri
Tauranga Maori are pushing for the city's proposed new museum to be a standalone entity, rather than incorporated into a new library.
Tauranga City Council is looking at a range of options, including a library-museum-marae on Willow St near the central business area or a museum on Cliff Rd with views over the harbour entrance.
Historian Buddy Mikaere, who is a non-voting member of the council committee, says the marae would be a welcome addition to the city's civic spaces, and Te Papa in Wellington has shown the value of such an amenity.
But that makes the Willow St site even more untenable to mana whenua, especially as the way the land was acquired is being challenged.
"Some of the senior kaumatua in Tauranga have come to the conclusion the Willow St site has no mauri, there is no mana in that site, whereas the Cliff Rd site is where the two main pa complexes were before Pakeha came. It is considered to still hold that mauri," Mr Mikaere
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