The Story of the Modern Marae

Te Ao Hou, Spring 1952, Page 23

The Story of the Modern Marae ‘Korero’, by E. Mervyn Taylor —BY COURTESY OF ICI. ‘The marae, buildings such as meeting-houses and halls, with appurtenant amenities, have always been the chief pre-occupation of a Maori community. Until these are provided the community will not seriously take up other problems, and will not freely contribute to funds for these other affairs.’ Sir Apirana Ngata said this during his great speech at Ruakawa Pa, Otaki, shortly before his death. It is a point pakehas often do not appreciate. They think of Maori progress almost solely as adaptation to pakeha jobs and pakeha environment. This is certainly important, but marae buildings take much money and cannot be completed without a good deal of vigour and energy. The first thing any Maori community will do to show its vigour and energy is to build a fine marae. One can be sure that where there is a marae of a high standard, there is also usually a community which takes a creditable part in the pakeha side of life. There has been no period during which the Maori left off building meeting-houses. During European times, there certainly were ups and downs, and meeting-houses tended to be built in waves. One such wave was around 1870, when everyone seemed to be building meeting-houses, and after that few were built until the end of the century. After another lull, there was a great upsurge in the nineteen-twenties. This tendency of building meeting-houses in waves may well go back to a period before the coming of the pakeha. The life of a pre-European meeting-house would be about thirty years. After that time it needed rebuilding. When one community decided to rebuild, others would follow out of a spirit of competition, and so a wave would start. In pakeha times, this first happened around 1870. A great number of famous carvers were working at that time in different tribes: Wero and Te Ngaru amongst the Te Arawa; Tamati Ngakaho (builder of Porourangi); and Hone Tahu, on the East Coast; Hori Pukehika, at Wanganui, and many others. The enthusiasm of the tribes was probably partly due to the leadership of Te Kooti, who was very anxious to see meeting-houses built, and also to the tide of Maori national feeling at the time. Te Kooti was responsible for the big houses at Te Kuiti and Matatua Pa (Ruatahuna), and many others. It is said that many communities used to get their meeting-houses ready when Te Kooti was to visit them. But Te Kooti was very critical, and quick to find fault in meeting-houses; there are several stories of houses in which he refused to sleep. So it was with the famous Takitimu House, in Martinborough. Te Kooti said no one would sleep in it, and that it would remain as a house for spiders. Not long after, a fire destroyed Takitimu, and it is said it had never been used. Another wave of meeting-house building occurred between 1890 and 1900. At that time a large number of minor carved houses were built in various parts. This upsurge occurred at about the same time as the ‘Young Maori Party’ and perhaps was influenced by it. There was then a definite decline in the quality of the carvings, which did not equal that of Te Kooti's time. The revival occurred in the 1920's and was associated with the arts and crafts movement of

that time. The school at Rotorua not only revived the practice of building carved houses, but also built them up to a high standard. Carving came into its own again, but that was not all. Modern European methods were now first applied to Maori community buildings. Walls were made higher, ventilation was improved, steel and concrete were used for the structure. Marae buildings became permanent instead of temporary. One of the first big projects of the Rotorua school artists was Te Poho o Rawiri, at Gisborne, and later followed the Pomare and Carroll memorial houses, Waitangi, Te Kaha and many others. Te Arawa also continued its tradition of building fine houses. Most, but not all of these houses received Government subsidies of some sort. Since the Maori Social and Economic Advancement Act was passed in 1945, a subsidy of pound for pound became a regular facility. At this time the main wave of carved meeting-houses was once again past, but one major meeting-house renovated under the Act was the Whakato House at Manutuke.