February 20, 2024
Whatatutu pa rising from the past
People around Gisborne will get the rare opportunity to see a traditional Māori village up close this week.
Matawhero Lloyd has built the village on a pa site that was part of a block bought by his parents when they moved back to Whatatutu some years ago.
The project has taken more than six years, including replanting building materials like raupo and manuka that had been cleared generations ago for farming.
He considered the site a wahi tapu, and thought carefully how it could be used as an education resource and to share history and culture with whanau.
“We only do it by hand and only with natural materials so we don’t like any tanalised stuff – just trying to keep the mauri of it as pure as we can. the experience in learning and the lessons along the way are part of the journey. The fact we don’t want anything permanent – you have to keep working at it. It’s a living and breathing thing, not like a tourist site,” he says.
Mr Lloyd says the pa is a chance to reconnect with the simpler life enjoyed by tupuna.