A Wairoa community organiser says he feels heartbroken at the damage done to the region’s marae by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Wairoa Film Festival convenor Leo Koziol says his local mare at Nuhaka flooded, and in Wairoa Ngati Kahungunu’s premier marae Takitimu was filled with mud.
“In Tangoio (north of Napier), their marae has been red-stickered so the conservationistshave to get in there and try to rescue all of the whakairo, all of the tukutuku panels and when somethign like that, when our ancestor passes away with such damage to the marae, it breaks your heart,” he says.
