Council backs selling land blocks to Ngāti Oneone for kura project

Gisborne councillors voted on Wednesday to sell three land lots on Ranfurly St for market rates to Poho o Rawiri Marae Committee Incorporated as part of a Statement of Intent adopted by the council on August 21. Pictured is part of the land parcels. Photo / Zita Campbell

A Gisborne hapū is one step closer to building a school, after councillors voted to approve the sale of three council land lots on Wednesday.

“If Ngāti Oneone could convert the land into a kura ... and see heaps of activity and children having fun and growing our community there, I would be all for it,” councillor Larry Foster said at the council meeting.

The land had “been no man’s land for such a long time”, he said.

Ngāti Oneone has sought the return of ancestral lands through a “Reclamation of whenua” movement, where a fire on Hirini St was kept lit and stoked for 174 days.

As part of the movement, the hapū called on the council, Trust Tairāwhiti and Eastland Port to return ancestral lands that were not being used for core business.

The vote to sell three land lots on Ranfurly St for market rates to Poho o Rawiri Marae Committee Incorporated comes as part of a Statement of Intent adopted by the council on August 21.

Poho o Rawiri Marae Committee was Ngāti Oneone’s designated entity for land holdings.

According to the meeting’s report, the hapū has had long-term aspirations to relocate a kura once housed on its Te Poho-o-Rāwiri Marae grounds back to the area, and the land it sought was in proximity.

The council acquired the land from Eastland Port in 2016 and holds it under the Public Works Act.

As it is designated under heritage reserve zoning, which includes land of cultural or spiritual significance to tangata whenua and sites of historical or archaeological importance, it is unsuitable for commercial development, and the council had no plans for the land, the report states.

An interim lease was issued to Ngāti Oneone on October 24.

The hapū stopped its peaceful activation at the Hirini St site the next day.

The report said the council had also acknowledged the land’s shared interests of Ngāi Tāwhiri and Te Whānau ā Iwi and was working with those groups.

During the meeting, council chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann said that, under a council policy, the council was required to tender on an open market unless there was a reason to sell privately.

“Considering the circumstances of the Statement of Intent, the long historic whakapapa ties and connection to the land associated and adjacent to Te Poho o Rawiri Marae, there are significant reasons to be able to justify going direct,” said Thatcher Swann.

Following a hīkoi on May 5, the fire was lit at Ngāti Oneone’s site of its reclamation of whenua movement – Te Pā Eketū Shed, a warehouse-sized property on Hirini St, the area where the hapū had its original Te Poho-o-Rāwiri Marae and Pā.

The hapū had been removed almost a century ago to develop the Gisborne Harbour under the Public Works Act.

At the meeting, Deputy Mayor Aubrey Ria, who is Ngāti Oneone chairwoman Charlotte Gibson’s daughter, said that because of “a perceived non-pecuniary conflict [of interest]”, she would not vote on the paper.

According to the meeting’s report, the council was to draft the sales and purchase agreement on Thursday for negotiations with Poho o Rawiri Marae Committee Incorporated.

The kura’s history and plans

According to the report, Te Kura Kaupapa o Horouta Wānanga was originally established at Te Poho o Rawiri Marae to address the lack of kura kaupapa in the Kaiti area.

However, as the kura was extremely popular, it quickly outgrew its facilities.

In 2014, the marae underwent a major upgrade, and the kura was relocated to the old Gisborne rectory, the former boarding facilities for Gisborne Boys’ High School, where the school’s roll continues to grow.

“The move was intended as a temporary measure, with the long-term vision for the kura to return to Te Poho o Rawiri Marae, where it began.

“To that effect, work has been under way with the Ministry of Education to build new facilities for the kura on land blocks on Ranfurly St adjacent to Te Poho o Rawiri Marae,” the report says.

The marae kōhanga reo, Te Tihi o Tītīrangi Kōhanga Reo, sits on the marae grounds and is “a feeder kōhanga to the kura”.

“The kura is projecting a further roll increase, and Ngāti Oneone are keen to secure the land to facilitate its long-term growth and support the community’s desire to have a kura kaupapa education option for their tamariki.”

According to the report, the Ministry of Education has now commenced the building project, and Ngāti Oneone had signalled willingness to pay market value for the land.