KAPAI: Bay needs authentic marae-style attraction

There's a commonly-used catch-cry among advertising gurus and the marketing glitterati that we are leaving the information world and heading into the imagination world where brands, products and experiences with strong storylines behind them will be the success stories of the next decade.
Closer to home we are looking at the taonga (treasures) of Tauranga and asking ourselves how we can showcase their stories to the rest of the world without it costing us exactly that.
Standing on its own or alongside another whare taonga (museum) is the only issue to be resolved but putting a Maori museum into an old colonial-style Post Office as some are seriously suggesting is like trying to put a nymphomaniac into a nunnery _ it just won't work.
For my two bob's worth of backyard belief, I am strongly of the opinion that the gurus have got it right, and in our own back yard we have the strong storylines that can make Tauranga and its surrounding skirt of Tangaroa's treasures the silver lining of the long white cloud's tourism cloak.
Figures released by the Ministry of Tourism this week tells the same story as the adland gurus. That is, 455,000 or one in five international visitors visited a Maori cultural experience in 2006. And the demand for new authentic Maori experiences is growing faster than a freshly-flooded watercress drain. Here in Tauranga we have generations of storylines by the kete-full, waiting to be plucked from the puha paddocks of a bay that has plenty.
But there is too much hui and not enough dui by the key stakeholders.
This year 55 cruise ships will be sitting in the dock of the bay with a waka-full of walk-shorted, bobby-socked senior citizens from the Excited States all looking for a unique cultural experience. And 15,000 of them will have to waltz their walking frames down the gangplanks and hop on to a bus that will take them to the story of Te Arawa in RotoVegas, because we cannot offer the story according to the tangata whenua of Tauranga Moana.
A total of 15,000 passengers equates to $3 million walking across the Mamaku to see, smell, listen and learn from the same story as we can offer here in Tauranga. And that's just the cruise ships.
The time is fast approaching where we need an interactive and authentic marae-styled attraction in Tauranga where our stories can be told. And not just to the tourists, but also to our own tamariki who hunger for the history we were never taught at school.
The challenge will be where to house it and who will pay for it _ and what about the parking?
Yes, I know it sounds like the same song being sung by the Dillon Diva from the I-want-it-my-way one-hit wonder, and I know the message from Mary soon became a full-tide flop that floated quietly back out to sea like a certain surf reef. But a Maori marae/museum will have a guaranteed patronage if housed within walking distance of the dock.
What about the campground sites recently returned to tangata whenua beneath Mauao, a short hikoi for cruise ship passengers? This Wednesday's third and final reading in Parliament about the return of ownership of Mauao could certainly pave that way. Or maybe Moturiki Island, where warriors once roamed fresh off the waka from Rarotonga, could be a marae/museum's new found home? And that in itself is a great story as is the Battle of Gate Pa and Te Ranga.
All stories that need to be told if we are to understand the past so we can move forward into the future.
Or perhaps a marae/museum could be built at Bay Park by Bob the Builder, now that he has built a bridge for the new kid to cross over into the blue-chip turf of Winston's pin-striped politics.
Bob, who has stated on more than one occasion he would give his left one for a Maori burial up on Mauao, could knock it up for next to nothing and while we are at it my cousin Margaret who is the new patron saint of Creative Tauranga could chip in with a few bob herself if required.
But what would I know? I am just a simple storyteller who sees silver linings in long white clouds.
broblack@xtra.co.nz