The small town of Te Hana is set to become a major tourist destination next year. As the international visitors will probably want to take in some culture when they are here for the Rugby World Cup, Te Hana is replicating a 17th century Maori village. Community work teams are very busy helping to get it all ready in time.

Daily community work teams from both Dargaville and Whangarei go out to Te Hana Te Ao Marama (Te Hana means the New Dawning). “There is a lot of work to do,” says Assistant Area Manager Tony Hodgson. “The 17th century village is on State Highway 1 and only a 50-minute drive from Auckland, so we expect many tourists to come and visit.

“This project is large and unique in the Mäori tourism industry. On site is a nine-metre high fortified pa, fully trenched and complete with traditional whare or buildings. The village will contain an auditorium, a large café, kapa haka performance stages and a marae complex. A papakainga or living village will be built as well, with people undertaking traditional activities as they would have done hundreds of years ago. The village will provide many learning and training opportunities such as whakaaro (carving) and raranga (weaving).

“We have been involved since the beginning in 2002,” says Tony. “Everything has been done from scratch. We have cleared out and replanted the river bank which now sees native birds returning to the area. We have also helped with building activities and have harvested flax to thatch the roofs. There is still plenty of work to do such as harvesting manuka trees, landscaping and working on the marae and pa. I also hope that we will start work on a market garden.

“The garden could produce vegetables for the café and it would be a great idea to have community work teams help out with this. After completing it they would have an ongoing project to dig into. We have just signed up Te Hana Te Ao Marama as an approved community work agency. This will allow them to apply for agency funding to help buy the equipment needed for the garden.”

Tony is proud of the four service managers who are out there creating new projects for their community work teams. Michele Beazley, Julianne Epere, Lance Kennedy and Barbara Bailey are doing a great job securing projects such as the one at Te Hana or getting rid of graffiti in partnership with the Whangarei District Council.

“We also have good relationships with schools in the area and are making quite a name for ourselves in Tai Tokerau and next year hopefully even internationally!”

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ISSN 1178-1327

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