community development
te whare roimata: house of tears Uncle Tip, the first kaumatua, respected the place of women in Te Whare Roimata (TWR) and encouraged their leadership. Cathy Harrison visited TWR and encountered a Maori and Pakeha world view woven into one vision for people on the margins. The interview gathers almost 30 years’ bi-cultural wisdom and experience in stories of an innovative grassroots community.
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he social reforms carved by Rogernomics in the early 1980s led to the birth of Te Whare Roimata, a bicultural inner-city community working with disadvantaged people living in boarding-houses and low-rent accommodation on the eastern side of inner-city Christchurch. Ara, a prayerful Christian Māori woman, gave the marae its name Te Whare Roimata, ‘The House of Tears’, tears from hurt and pain, from joy and loss. TWR is about people coming in times of distress or struggle, hurt or aloneness. When you walk into the whare, you feel the aroha. You are captured by the carving on the wall and the surrounding photos of former leaders and community members. There is no hierarchy on this wall. All are remembered and honoured. They are well connected in this community. The carving by John (whose photo now hangs on the wall) once portrayed to the world a self-image of ugliness and despair but in time one of the whanau carved a red sun to surround the face representing the new life and transformation which had occurred. John chose the proverb situated below the carving. It says, Whaia Te Ao Marama — Seek the Knowledge of Life. ‘This is what TWR is about,’ Heeni and Jenny explained. Who are the community of Te Whare Roimata? Before the earthquake most who lived in this part of Christchurch East were single, living alone, in old bed sits or low income units. Connections to their own families were not strong. Complications made it difficult for them to reconnect, or at times 12 Tui Motu InterIslands May 2013
Catherine Harrison many were not understood by their biological whanau. In different parts of the inner city there are younger or older people. It’s a very diverse community; it’s also ethnically diverse. The quake changed some of this because a number of Somali and Asian families have left town along with young people who went to the language schools. Even so we are still ethnically diverse. We’re fortunate with our kaumatua structure — the older, wiser head sits quietly with people and works gently through matters. They consider what’s needed to support a person. Sometimes it involves a whanau hui where we talk honestly and enable both groups to have their say, negotiate and work through issues. What is TWR’s vision? Manaakitanga, aroha, awhi and whakawhanaunatanga are at the heart of this place — hospitality, love, support, connecting and belonging. Awhi is to support and to journey beside another person, to accept them as they are. It is also to help them begin the journey of growth, to believe in them — sometimes this means to love them enough to put in some boundaries, to look at other ways of presenting support. It is a valuing of other. From the outset we wanted to walk a bicultural journey. We wanted it to be authentic not just a ‘kia ora’ sharing. We asked, “What does the Treaty demand of us?” We shared our resources and gave recognition to the place of Māori as tangata whenua. They had the right to develop their own responses, their own ways of working.
Uncle Tip said that TWR was a woman’s wairua. It was the women who provided the backbone, the nurture, the love, the care. He defined that as the feminine quality. What are the activities and programmes? We always start the week with a whanau hui. We come together to catch up, hear about what’s going to happen during the week, talk about what happened in the previous week. Then we share kai together and sing and learn waiata — that’s before we go off for the week. Each day has its particular rhythm. We may visit people; the boys go off to the garden; or there are events happening. Since the earthquake we have begun computer classes. We have a labour pool of people, often marginalised, who offer support to others who are struggling. We have a mobile information service on Stanmore Road. We set up our little mobile table and chairs. Sometimes it might just be sharing a cuppa and saying hello, but after a few weeks somebody might say, “I’ve got these issues” and we keep on building trust. Or we might say, “Would you like to join us at the Thursday luncheon?” There’s a partnership between us and the neighbourhood group. It’s difficult to estimate numbers in terms of TRM community but we deliver 3000 newsletters. The garden of over an acre involves the community — people supporting and teaching one another. It connects people to one another and to the earth. It expresses a commitment