Murihiku marae takes on national first in redevelopment

Thursday, 27 May 2021

The Murihiku Marae redevelopment will create a cultural and community hub for Waihōpai Māori.

An $11.8 million investment will see the Murihiku marae become the first in the country to have a youth home onsite when it reopens.

Waihōpai Rūnaka chief executive Odele Stehlin said the home will be just one of the wrap-around social services the rūnaka will be able to offer from the community and cultural hub; once construction of the Murihiku marae Redevelopment Project is completed in December 2022.

But it was more than simply a project, she said.

“It's a call to who we are. It’s a call to where we stand in the community.”

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Visitors were called into the Murihiku marae wharenui during a mihi whakatau on Thursday. The wharenui will be one of only two structures that will remain during the marae redevelopment.

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Stehlin was speaking at a mihi whakatau Thursday where the rūnaka shared its plans for the rebuild after it received $9 million from Government's Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund in January.

Additional funding will come from the Invercargill Licensing Trust Fund, the Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and the Waihōpai Rūnaka itself.

An artist's impression of what the new Murihiku marae will look like when it is completed.

There was willingness from social agencies to work from the new marae offices and hopes of being able to offer medical services in the future, Stehlin said.

The redevelopment had been seven years in the making and had been led by kaumātua, she said.

The existing marae building will be demolished from September to make way for meeting rooms, activity spaces, offices, and a new wharekai.

Project co-ordinator Deborah Paterson said all that only the wharenui and the boat shed at the entrance to the property would remain.

If additional funding can be secured, the rūnaka hopes to include papakāinga housing for its kaumātua.

Architect Murali Bhaskar, from BOON Team Architects, said his team paid close attention to the cultural narrative of the land when designing the buildings – drawing inspiration from the tohorā (whales) and waka that feature in the stories of how Waihōpai and Te Ara-a-Kewa (Foveaux Strait) came to be.

The new building will resemble a whale, with a tail, or reception area, at the east end of the hill to catch the natural sunlight, the body of the whale represented by day-to-day facilities and the wharenui acting as the head.

It will all be sustainable, Bhaskar said – from the natural timber structure to stormwater harvesting once it was built.

The idea was to create a space that looked to the past while moving into the future, he said.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who was at the marae on Thursday, said the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund sought projects that could stimulate the economy while also creating better health and wellbeing for communities.

“That's what this project will do,” he said.

Waihōpai Rūnaka is hoping to host the official opening of the new Murihiku maraein January 2023.