April 19, 2021
Clean up for Te Poho o Rawiri
Ngāti Oneone’s Te Poho o Rawiri Marae in Gisborne has had a clean-up in what will be a regular occurrence.
The meeting house was built about 1930 by Sir Apirana Ngata and master carvers Pine and Hone Taiapa as a showcase for the Maori revival.
Elizabeth Kerekere, who oversaw the year-long restoration of the marae’s 111 tukutuku panels in 2018, says the fragile weavings were cleaned at that stage and just need a touch up every two years.
"We had a special solution we used but mostly just good clean water with tiny brushes and just every single piece of woven kiekie and pingao in every single tukutuku, we cleaned them one by one. It was painstaking work but today, because of that work, our young people were able to go through and just do a light clean, light tidy up, light wipe in one day," she says.
Dr Kerekere says to do the clean up this time she enlisted kohanga reo staff as well as a group of young people who are replanting the maunga behind the marae.
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