This marae is embodying its name to care for its cyclone-impacted whānau
Saturday, 25 February 2023
In a remarkably unscathed pocket of North Wairoa, Hinemihi Marae tends to those who have lost everything with aroha and precision.
The operation is overseen by many, but when one arrives they are sent straight to the man everybody just calls “Uncle.”
That’s Anthony Lewis (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou, Ngai Tahu, Rangitau and Ngāti Apa), he sits in the “nerve centre”, laptop open and with an inveterate desire to help those in his community stricken by the floods of nine days ago. It’s just the way they do things around here.
Around him, at midday on Friday, Hinemihi marae whānau are working with poise, peeling spuds, buttering sandwiches and assembling packs of cleaning supplies for those only a few hundreds of metres away who are attempting to salvage their lives from the silt.
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Lewis, a descendent of Hinemihi, tells of the marae’s motto.
“Te rōpū ahu whenua. Roughly that means the gathering of people. Our tipuna Hinemihi was all about helping the destitute and the displaced. And that’s what it is. We’re doing it.”
In the kitchen, Lewis’ sister Mary Jarden helps to prepare kai that is set to be delivered to nearby homes. Jarden was almost lost to the waters, Lewis recounts.
“My sister Mary woke up ready to go to work, and walked out the back door and the water was coming over the backdoor about a foot above the ground.
“She turned around, she was having the call of nature. She went back, woke up my sister, my mum who is 85-years-old, to get their bums moving – the river was coming, the river was not far from the house.”
His sister then went to alert others. His younger sister moved cars “out of dodge”, while the rest of the family fled.
“That sister ran down the road screaming at everyone, railway road down to Te Rato Rd… She was screaming like a psycho, but those people listened, they got out of dodge. They know my sister, she wouldn’t be screaming for nothing.”
The whare kai is awash with stories like these. People who saved neighbours from impending floodwaters often with very little time to spare themselves.
The screen in front of Lewis is replete with a meticulous spreadsheet that details the status, needs and conditions of nearby whānau and their whares. At his feet, his mokopuna have constructed a cosy den with soft toys and books as company. This is their safe space too, he says.
Almost 120 homes in the area are red or yellow stickered, indicating severe or moderate damage respectively. Many homes have been stripped of fittings and linings to allow for the removal of silt and the drying of studs. This means that whatever food could be saved from the torrent is difficult to prepare, and what is left of bedrooms and lounges uninviting.
Lewis’ spreadsheet contains granular detail to inform the several roving crews of volunteers who deliver kai and supplies to whānau nearby. Things like; the location of homes, whether they’re stickered, how many people live there, phone numbers, whether nappies are needed for pēpi and so on.
“It’s simple, but we know what’s going on.”
Lewis pulls up an example. A family who need help shovelling their driveway to rid it of silt. Another almost identical request is lodged, made trickier by the fact that family has people in the house who have Covid-19.
Lewis and his crew have been there since day dot. Cooking up to 1000 meals a day, preparing care packages and shuttling supplies with the help of the army and volunteers, to the homes around the badly affected Clyde North and Ruataniwha St areas.
Ensuring that Hinemihi can lead its own response to the floods has been an essential task, says Lewis. He and his team have a better idea than almost anyone of the needs of the community that surrounds the marae.
“Our thing is, we’ve been here from the beginning helping and people have come in and are saying ‘you’ve got to do this, you got to do that.’ And we are saying: ‘hang on, where were you? Where were you in the beginning?’
“The cooks have emptied their cupboards, their gardens, the farmers have dropped off food, growers have been bringing food in… This is ours. We’ve driven this.”
Ultimately, Lewis thinks Henimihi is playing her part in concert with his too.
“I think it’s her [Hinemihi]. She's saying I know who’s got this, I’m going to put a thought in their head… One lady asked if there was any chance she could do the lotto numbers. I'm going, I’m not asking for that!
“All we want is to have our people happy.”