Northland marae plays crucial role in supporting community during Cyclone Gabrielle

Te Whakamaharatanga Marae, Waimamaku during its cyclone Gabrielle response

Many marae across Northland played a crucial role in keeping communities safe during Cyclone Gabrielle - one being Te Whakamaharatanga Marae, a Te Roroa marae in the remote Waimamaku Valley.

Waimamaku Resource Centre community development co-ordinator Amiria Puia-Taylor said the marae, one of seven in the tiny settlement, was used for the first time as a critical community-led disaster response hub.

“Families of all colours, sizes, shapes and whakapapa were coming in and out,” Puia-Taylor said.

“The road [State Highway 12] was cut off from Waipoua Forest in the south ‘round to Rawene in Hokianga in the north.”

That’s a 50-kilometre stretch of highway and more than an hour’s travelling time from south to north.

Waimamaku is on the west coast’s SH12 just south of Hokianga and 74km northwest of Dargaville.

Sisters Pepi (left) and Tracey Tau at Ahikiwi Marae north of Dargaville after cleaning their marae's wharekai [dining area] following Kaihu River floodwaters raging through the building during Cyclone Gabrielle. Their neighbour had to drive across paddocks in his truck to rescue the pair as floodwaters rose.

“On Saturday, February 11, as Cyclone Gabrielle was starting to hit with high wind gusts and rain, we asked the taumata [head kaumātua] if we could quickly shift our evacuation response site for families that needed to seek refuge to the marae,” Puia-Taylor said.

The response was set up the next day, becoming a critical community-led disaster response hub for the next eight days until being shut ahead of a tangi on Sunday.

“It’s the first time we’ve done our response from that evacuation site,” she said.

Community member Renah Hohaia had been a witness to Cyclone Bola in 1988 and played a significant part in setting up the latest response. About 50 people made up the team, each with their own tasks. The response was supported by Te Roroa.

Some people stayed at the marae. One of those grateful to be able to do so and access its power was a community member who relied on supplementary oxygen to breathe.

Te Whakamaharatanga was a beacon for mana whenua and the wider community, cut off from the outside world for days.

“Our community has lost its cellphone towers, there was no landline or power, roads were closed at Dargaville with flooding and there were slips on both ends of the road,” Puia-Taylor said.

Te Whakamaharatanga Marae’s response crew worked closely with a wide range of organisations including Te Roroa and other iwi, local Civil Defence and the local Far North District Council community board member.

The marae became a community-led disaster response site with power from a previously-installed generator, a water pump, a functioning kitchen with gas and hot water and the only satellite internet access to the outside world for miles around.

There was a constant flow of people coming into the marae for meals, hot showers, to charge their phones and much more. Others cooked meals that the workers rallied to take out to the community using Te Roroa iwi vehicles, local vehicles, four-wheel motorbikes and whatever could be found to do the job.

Pepi Tau (left) accepts food parcels at Ahikiwi marae in the upper Kaihu Valley from Te Roroa's Manual Te Rore who was delivering the kai and first aid from Ngāti Whātua and Te Uri o Hau

Five stations were set up in the marae, including one which put together care packages to take out with the hot cooked food and other essentials. Outreach checking on the health and wellbeing of those in the community was an essential feature of the mahi.

There was also a much-used device-charging station for iPads, laptops and phones. Another was set up so kaumātua and kuia could play scrabble together. Yet another station was the hakari [gathering place] table, where people could join each other to chat.

The kitchen was part of the response’s essential lifeblood.

“The kitchen had gas and was running 24/7. There were three teams of kitchen people,” Puia-Taylor said.

By day five, different local hotels were also providing chefs who would come in and help out by cooking, too.

“We had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the marae for those who wanted to come in. These had set times organised to make them practical for the community’s older people,” she said.

Te Roroa crews worked with the Waimamaku Four Square to sort essentials purchased for locals who had no cash and no internet access. Generators and fuel were also taken to families without power.

Kaimahi across the board made sure to remain upbeat throughout to help community spirit.

Puia-Taylor said it had been a great experience for the community.

“Everybody got along. It has really bolstered the community,” she said.

Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.