We pass this house quite often and Hubby told me that it is a 'house within a house'. So, of course, I had to do some digging.
Fortunately (or not), there was a rather recent article in the local paper about it.
The
future of a 170-year-old raupo (reed) whare (house) that has been sheltered inside a
larger villa for 104 years has divided a South Taranaki whanau.
The
wharepuni, or sleeping house, which has its celling and walls lined
with reeds, is in the centre of the five-bedroom, two-story villa at
Pihama that is set to be demolished by the family trust that
administers the land it sits upon.
It
was built as a place where whanau travelling from Whanganui and South
Taranaki to attend monthly events at Parihaka could rest overnight,
Ngāruahine kaumātua John Hooker said.
“That
whare is 150 – to 170 years old, it was built well before the
homestead, the homestead was built about 103 years ago, it's just the
shell around it.”
Nowadays,
the room is used for whanau gatherings including weddings and tangi,
and for meetings by the iwi kaumatua. At
present there’s no natural light in the whare because the windows
have been boarded up with plywood instead of being replaced.
The
house around it is in desperate need of a new roof and other repairs,
but has good bones, he said. The
Te Hana Taua Trust decided to demolish the large five-bedroom,
two-story villa after a property report in 2015 classed the building
as a health and safety risk.
The
dispute between the two groups from the same whanau has been underway
for several years. The
trust wants Elaine Warren, who has lived there all her life, to
leave, so the building can be removed, but Warren, who has the role
of kaitiaki of the house and the whare, is refusing to agree.
She
is backed by kaumātua (tribal elder) from Ngāruahine iwi, who want the home
repaired to ensure the wharepuni is preserved. They
have had offers of help and funding from people who wanted to see the
house restored, but no work can be done without the approval of the
trustees, Hooker said.
“We
don't want it demolished, we want it mended, we want it protected for
future generations.”
Warren,
who is a Maōri warden, said the house was built by her grandfather,
Pohe Tito, and she grew up there with her parents and 11 siblings.
Tito is buried in the family urupa near the homestead. As
kaitiaki, her role was to care for and protect the house and its
special room.
The
house is part of a larger farm which the trust administers on behalf
of beneficiaries.
Hooker
said the kaumātua (elders) are hoping the trustees will agree to setting up a
separate, small reservation trust to look after just the house and
whare and a small urupa (burial ground) beside it.
The
ownership lists of all the current beneficiaries would remain the
same, but the smaller trust could then attract its own funding to
restore the property. This
would absolve the trust of health and safety concerns and
responsibilities, he said.
They
have placed a rāhui (restriction) on the property to protect it, and a delegation
of 15 turned up at a tenancy tribunal hearing in the Hāwera Court on
Monday to voice their opposition to the demolition plan.
Warren
did not attend, because she was unwell, adjudicator Rex Woodhouse
said. Lawyer
Susan Hughes QC, representing the Te Hana Taua Trust, asked Woodhouse
for a possession order, so that arrangements could be made to have
Warren evicted.
“There
is no doubt the trust is the legal owner of the land,” she said. She
said a decision from the Māori Land Court in August 2020 and
mediation between the parties had reached agreement that Warren would
leave, but this had not happened.
“Mrs
Warren does not have proper legal authority to be in the building,”
she said. “Parts
of the building that can be saved will be preserved,” she said. “It
has dealt with this matter as generously as it can, but needs to
progress the matter and the demolition of the homestead.”
She
said the trustees’ desire to see the building brought down was “not
capricious”. “They
are feeling acutely the divisions within the whānau (extended family) that this
brings.”
Woodhouse
said he would provide a decision in writing “within the week”. Ngāruahine
Iwi Authority chairman Hori Manuirirangi said the issue was not as
clear-cut as it might seem.
Although
the trust had a duty because of the health and safety issues, the
elders also had a vested interest in the house because of the whare
inside it, he said. “This
is an issue of tikanga Māori and tikanga Pakeha. As a marae trustee,
under the law in the Māori land court we are viewed as owners, but
we are not the owners, it is the people.”
“There
is a taonga (treasure) in that house built by the old people... we don't want to
see that building trampled on.”
