August 13, 2018
Coordinated fund boosts marae rebuilds
Coordinated fund boosts marae rebuilds
A Kaikohe Marae razed by fire in 2003 is being rebuilt with help from a new approach to marae grants.
Okorihi Marae is to get $1.7 million for a new wharekai.
The money comes from the Oranga Marae programme, which combines the small pool of Marae Ora funding from the Māori development budget with the larger Lotteries Grant Board marae fund.
Māori Development Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta says this year the combined fund has about $17 million to build, repair and restore whare while also encouraging marae to plan for the revitalisation of tikanga and te reo Māori and the transmission of mātauranga.
Another Kaikohe area marae, Kaingahoa, got $300,000 to rebuild an ablutions block, and Whakapaumahara Marae at Hikurangi has almost $900,000 for infrastructure and a new ablutions block.
Also in this round of funding was Waipapa Marae at Kāwhia, which got $725,000 to rebuild its wharekai.
Ms Mahuta says it was the home marae of the late Koro Wetere.
She says as a tribal and political leader, Mr Wetere led the Māori language and Māori development campaigns of his time, and it’s fitting the fund can reinvest in his tūrangawaewae and his people.
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