When did you last need help?

Kataraina | Matapihi

We were invited to kaumātua day at Waikari Marae, Matapihi where we met Kataraina, who is trying to bring whānau back to the marae. It was the dream of her grandmother – who was one of four kuia instrumental in the foundation of the marae – that it was a space for all whānau.

“How are we going to get our whānau to come back to the marae the way it used to be?

Because a lot of our marae, we’re short on the pae, for instance, for kaikōrero. Especially during the week, because most of our whānau work. Also, we’ve lost so many kuia, koroua. So now the next generation is trying to pick up, but we aren’t all together yet because Covid really separated us. And so we’re still trying to do that.

We still need to get together to pinpoint what it is that we can do to help our whānau to get them to come back to the marae because everyone’s trying to survive. Everyone’s working with their kids, tamariki. I have nieces and nephews who got tamariki and they spend all weekend taking them to sports, but we’re needing a little bit of their time for the marae. And that’s what we’ve got to try and work out – how can we do that?

So there’s four kuia that were instrumental in the building of our marae. Poia Te Kani Smith, Riria Ellis Te Kani, Titia Te Kani, and my grandmother, Ngawiki Dickson. Now their whakaaro was, they wanted to build a marae for the use of our whānau. And I’ve always followed that whakaaro because I think it’s a good one. I think that’s what marae are built for.”

Our question for kaikōrero this month was “when did you last need help?” We learned about the diverse demands on the lives of New Zealanders and the incredible support networks they rely on.