Mission opening will focus on cultural links

Press, 28 November 1987, Page 11

Mission opening will focus on cultural links

By

JANE ENGLAND,

Maori affairs reporter The $1 million extension to the Methodist Mission on its new site in Durham Street will be opened tomorrow in a ceremony commemorating the tribal land and celebrating the bicultural challenge for the mission’s future. The mission’s superintendent, the Rev. John Roberts, said that the mission had inherited a significant Maori past through its new location. The land on which the mission now stands was originally bought from the Canterbury Association in 1852. The association had bought most of Canterbury from the New Zealand Company, he said. The Land Purchase Commissioner, Henry Tracy Kemp, arranged the original sale with the Ngai Tahu tribespeople. The land was sold on the understanding that adequate reserves would be

set aside. “The instruction given to Kemp was for the land to be acquired by the Crown. Kemp, however, assigned it to the New Zealand Company. Kemp did not do as he was asked. "This, together with the failure to set aside adequate reserves, to honour other promises and the low prices paid, has been the source of ongoing grievance on the part of Ngai Tahu.” Mr Roberts said that those responsible for allocating the reserves deliberately kept them small and in places that were of little use to Maoris. The whole matter and its subsequent history of “inadequate response” is now the subject of a land claim to the Waitangi Tribunal. “There are issues for the mission to address here. There is a Maori contribution to acknowledge. These are matters

that should challenge the mission to embrace a bicultural future.” One of the mission’s earliest projects entailed the building of hostels in Springfield Road on a site which has since expanded to become Rehua Marae. The marae, which is one of the most active in New Zealand, acts as a base for the tangata whenua (local people) and maintains a close link with the mission. Building on the new mission, which would link Aldersgate and the church and provide new extensions, began in March and was expected to cost $1 million when the interior had been completed, Mr Roberts said. He said that funding for the new building was taken only from donations or trusts earmarked for building, not those tagged for social services. The most exciting aspect of the new mission was a work of art by a

Ngai Tahu artist, Miss Cath Brown, who was contracted from the Christchurch Teachers’ College to create a piece depicting the Maori significance of the site. Painting on the piece was done by students from the college under Miss Brown’s guidance. “It is a remarkable work bearing great significance to the mission, linking the past to the present, through the Maori vision, which must be realised if we are to look to the future,” said Mr Roberts. The piece depicted the natural resources of Canterbury and “all the Waitaha (Canterbury) people who are standing in the sun’s rays.” The opening service tomorrow will be attended by the president of the Conference of the Methodist Church, the Rev. Morehu Te Whare, and the Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay.