Collective iwi capital helped power a housing development that opened in Taranaki over the weekend.
The first two of 22 homes being built by Taranaki iwi were opened on Saturday at Ōkato, thirty kilometres from New Plymouth.
Te Kāhui o Taranaki iwi agency told its property managers they needed to build affordable homes that also would bring cultural, social and environmental gains.
Trustee Daniel Harrison said the development – called Te Katonga Nui – wouldn’t have added up without the sway of Hāpai, a collective investment property fund of 33 iwi.
The Ōkato development made huge savings on material costs via the bulk-buying power of Hāpai, which Harrison said would be building thousands of houses across the motu in the next few years.
“We were able to bring the [cost] pricing down to a point where our smaller local whānau builders were able to be competitive with large corporate builders.”
It meant fifty per cent of contractors on the job were local Māori businesses, said Harrison, who’s also a director of Te Kāhui’s property arm.
“Whānau can access houses at a really good rate.
“They’re getting really good quality, built by our whānau, and they’re paying a really competitive market price for that.”
Ngā Mahanga hapū steered the development alongside Taranaki iwi, especially in setting environmental ambitions.
The previously neglected Te Mangaone Stream was restored into a wetland on one corner of the site.
Tane Manukonga, the hapū resource consents representative, said Ngā Mahanga was determined that whānau returning home would be enriched, not just housed.
“That it was a place where we could find our identity.
“We could acknowledge our awa, we could repair our awa, and we could then understand what’s important to the awa, what’s important to the whenua.”
Te Katonga Nui’s name is a nod to the name of Ōkato – which recalls a historic tidal flood coming inland.
Turned positive, Te Katonga Nui means a flood of people returning home to their land.
The first of that flood are new homeowners Charmaine Power and Mokoia Coe.
Power said moving to Te Katonga Nui as a wahine of Taranaki and Ngā Mahanga set up a new succession.
“My connection to this whenua, it allows me to be tau, mauri tau, to have a lot of aroha because I know I am from this whenua.
“So just being able to walk over [it] with my family, with our whanaunga, with all the hapū people - this is what it’s all about.”
Coe said as a single-income sole parent, buying a house seemed impossible.
But she was determined to set things up for her daughter and following generations.
“Also, starting a legacy as a single mum to be an example and a role model, that you can achieve these types of goals and there are no limits to what you can do.”
Ka Uruora – a housing and finance trust again owned by an iwi collective – was pivotal in getting whānau ready to buy a home, as with recent iwi housing in Urenui.
It teaches about financial literacy and helps get mortgages approved for those ready to take the leap into home ownership.
Ka Uruora pou tūhono Hinepare Ruakere said after all the mahi it was emotional to see hapū members return to their land.
“Our land taken, restored … we’re getting our whenua back because it’s ours.
“And the joy of knowing that all our whanaunga whakapapa to this whenua, that they have a chance to move into this for them and their mokopuna.”
Te Katonga Nui’s 16 homes for affordable rent or purchase should be finished by the end of summer, and there are six kaumatua units on the drawing board.
LDR is local body journalism funded by RNZ and NZ on Air
