Horizons Regional Council’s Tonga Māori seat councillor Te Kenehi Teira’s life follows the flow of the river

The Matakarapa Marae mural, by Tony Matthews.

The Manawatū River has always run through the veins of its peoples and was once the heart and soul of the settler town of Foxton and its bustling port, until in the 1940s, the government of the day decided to rip that heart out through some major river works, creating a shortcut for the river to the sea, bypassing Foxton and destroying its harbour and trade forever.

The Whirokino Cut, as it is known, has been the bane of life in Foxton ever since, and the Foxton River Loop has since been described as a smelly, dirty backwater full of weeds and sediment.

One affected local is Horizons Regional Council’s Tonga Māori councillor Te Kenehi Teira, who is passionate about his town, his river, and local history. He chairs the local historical society.

Te Kenehi Teira: “Things happen when people start talking to each other.”

The Foxton man also brings years of experience working in local government and Government agencies to the council table. Despite that knowledge, the role has been an eye-opener for him.

“I thought I knew a lot, but I am learning new things each day. I thought I knew a lot about local government too, but this was a huge learning curve.”

As a member of Horizons’ Manawatū River Users Group he said he has learned much about how others elsewhere in the region deal with freshwater issues.

“We also had a few workshops to help us come to grips with how scientists talk,” he said.

He has found the team at Horizons very supportive of new councillors, who must learn a lot in a short period of time.

He has been intrigued by the work done on the Manawatū River Gorge, for example.

“I pick up ideas from around the region that might work here, and am hoping to get the same level of support iwi there have to Foxton. The Save The River Trust is doing much of the heavy lifting when it comes to the Foxton river loop.” He said his role as regional councillor is a great opportunity to connect people.

He said he is pleased more people are now using the river loop for recreation, even since the new reserve behind Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom was put in and a lot of sediment was taken out of the river, though each time the floodgates open, a lot of sediments flow back in. That is already showing.

“Waka Ama, rowers and a surf club are using the river again.” He said as a child, he used to fish in the river. “People stopped doing that a long time ago.”

The Whirokino Cut, pictured during construction on the Manawatū River in 1942. Photo / Foxton Historical Society

He spent 20 years working for what is now called Heritage NZ, leading the team that looked after Māori heritage and archaeology, where the environment was an important component in heritage preservation. He is keen on community service.

“Things happen when people talk to each other.”

He said he believed the national perspective on freshwater - regarding both natural and man-made systems - was not well-co-ordinated.

“That is what Three Waters is about, but that is also about power.”

Stormwater issues that have been plaguing his hometown for generations, and the river’s estuary, which also suffers from what happens in the stagnant loop, especially in times of floods or heavy rain, are things that need to get sorted, he said.

He studied Maōri and administration at Te Wānanga o Raukawa.

“That [course] was about private as well as public administration, Māori lands and marae, and was led by Professor Whatarangi Winiata.”

He joined Foxton Borough Council and helped establish three kōhanga reo, the Kōkiri Centre and a few work schemes while he was there. He also worked for Palmerston North City Council as principal Māori officer.

His family used to live in Matakarapa, a community that was devastated after the Government initiated the Whirokino Cut, creating the Foxton River Loop and turning Matakarapa into an inaccessible island.

“There was only a footbridge to the island then, built by one of the local factories so they could put all their waste in the middle of Māori land. They also piped any residue from their factory processes into the river.”

A kapa haka group, pictured in front of the marae at Matarkarapa in 1945.

He has lent a large photograph of a kapa haka group that was based on the island, taken in 1945, to the museum in Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom. It was taken in front of the meeting house on Matakarapa, which stood next to a church that was built to commemorate 40 years of Christianity in Manawatū.

“It was called Tiuripi, or the Jubilee Church, and recognised all denominations.”

He has quite a few relatives in that photo. He said that the group had performed overseas and picked up European music, songs and clothing, such as the frilly collars you can see in this photo, that they adapted for use in their own concerts.

He said his father tried to look after the church when the locals were forced to abandon the area due to lack of access, but there was no chance of it ever being rebuilt. He recalls Matakarapa also had urupā [cemeteries].

In the 1840s, Presbyterian ministers Reverend James Duncan and Reverend John Inglis served in the then-thriving area, and they had homes built for them on Matakarapa.

Te Kenehi said both the church and marae, already declining after the community abandoned the ‘island’, were finally destroyed in the 1968 storm that sunk the Wāhine near Wellington.

“The remains were later bulldozed into a hole.”

Looking towards Matakarapa: the new river loop walk and redeveloped river can be seen to the right.