June 10, 2019
Tapu Te Ranga a place of respite
A place of peace and respite and boundless creativity.
That's how actor and activist Jim Moriarty is remembering Tapu Te Ranga Marae in Wellington's Island Bay, which burned down early on Sunday morning.
He says fire was always a fear of marae founder Bruce Stewart, who started building the sprawling structure in 1973 as a place for the capital's urban and marginalised Māori to call their own.
"That was his kaupapa. It later became part of the world earth park movement. It became a beautiful, beautiful place that housed contemporary works of art. I think of Robyn Kahukiwa. The thing about Bruce was that it wasn't enough for it to be a work of art that hung in a gallery, it was integrated into that thing that is very Māori which is it has to be useful to us for human achievement and endeavour. So the place was somewhere to seek safe harbour," Mr Moriarty says.
Over the decades thousands of people have been through for hui and wānanga or to find a place to live and work.
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