December 22, 2023
Flood-hit marae still waiting for relief
The chair of Kahungunu ki te Wairoa says the goalposts seem to keep shifting as the community attempts to rebuild two marae which were almost destroyed by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Wikitoria Hauraki, who also chairs Takitimu Marae, says rebuilding Takitimu and Tawhiti a Maru Marae is a priority for the community, even though all but one of the marae’s trustees also lost their homes in the floods.
She says they’ve been knocked back in applications to the flooding recovery and adverse weather funds.
“Do we have to lose everything? Do we have to lose all the carvings? What do we need to lose before we actually get this funding and it’s kind of like ‘you know we’ve been hit and you keep moving the goal posts. You know what we’re going through and we still can’t get the funding. What else do we have to lose?'” Ms Hauraki says.
The marae also felt shut out by civil defence and emergency management before the cyclone, and they’re now taking a greater role in work on flood mitigation and protection.