Five Gisborne marae at risk of flood and erosion will be relocated under Gisborne District Council plans. Local Democracy reporter Zita Campbell looks at Puketawai Marae’s “earth-shattering” cyclone experience, the progress since then and how community spirit and generosity has played a vital part in the recovery.
As the sun broke through the clouds and shone on the devastation left behind by Cyclone Gabrielle in February of 2023, it revealed “nothing had been left untouched” at Puketawai Marae in the Tairāwhiti community of Ūawa/Tolaga Bay. 
The damage left the Puketawai Marae community at “their lowest ebb spiritually and culturally”, marae trustee Victor Walker recalls.
The marae and pā had been undergoing an over $3 million rebuild, which had been progressing “swimmingly” before the cyclone, which left it covered in “hideous, foul-smelling silt”.
Almost two years later, plans are under way to shift Puketawai Marae to higher ground 100 metres away.
It is one of the five Gisborne marae to be relocated. The others are Ōkuri and Hinemaurea marae in Mangatūna, and Takipu and Rangatira marae in Te Karaka.
In the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle’s devastation, hundreds of properties were listed as Category 3 - deemed the highest risk of future flooding or erosion - and became eligible for a buyout process split between local councils and central government.
Whenua Māori and Māori land were separated from this process because of the complexities of “whakapapa, collective governance and ownership arrangements”.
A fund was set up to cover the process of relocating, buying, rebuilding, or leasing new land.
Along with the five Tairāwhiti marae, 11 residential Māori land blocks fall under the Category 3 budget allocated to the Cyclone Recovery Unit (CRU) and the Crown’s Whenua Māori and Marae Pathway.
A CRU spokesperson said they were enabling them to be “re-established somewhere safe within their tribal rohe”.
“The funding will include a contribution to land acquisition, support planning, design and rebuilding on new sites.”
The total funding amount for the Pathway, including specific allocations for individual marae, is commercially sensitive due to ongoing discussions. However, it will become publicly available once agreements have been reached with all parties, they say.
Gabrielle at ‘a whole new level’ compared with Bola
Walker said when the cyclone hit, Puketawai Marae’s new wharenui and ablution facilities were almost finished and piles were about to be put in for the new whare kai.
“We were praying, hoping against hope, that it wasn’t too bad - that the storm had missed us ... that the pā had been saved.”
Many whānau felt “shocked and sick” when they saw a drone shot of the marae sitting in a lake, revealing chest-height floodwaters had entered the wharenui and kōhanga.
During their first marae committee meeting afterwards, they sat in the sun and recognised many difficult decisions would follow to ensure the situation was not repeated in future severe weather events predicted for the region, Walker said.
“Bola went through our wharenui in 1988. Gabrielle was at a whole new level.”
After discussing the options - from leaving it at the status quo to investigating raising the complex - they realised “that lift and shift” was the only viable option.
Following consultation with whānau in Auckland, Wellington and Gisborne, they decided on investigating the option of lifting and shifting the marae and pā to a hill that is historically hapū land.
The location is around 100 metres behind the current site, which would give another six metres of height.
Marae rebuild project manager Manaia Ngata, of Civil Project Solutions, is continuing to work with the whānau for the relocation, and the team hope to have the marae and pā rebuild open at its new location “with a smile” by late 2026.
Walker said their experience so far had been of working with people who wanted to do their best for them to enable them to achieve milestones and deliverables.
This included identifying and confirming the option of relocating; GeoTech testing the new land spot to make sure it was suitable; creating a marae profile and charter; and beginning communications with the Māori Land Court to extend their Māori reservation land into the more suitable spot.
“We have approached the owner of that land and so far in the negotiations they’re very amenable to us acquiring it from them.”
They have started working with Gisborne District Council on resource consent.
Walker said all organisations involved had been “100% helpful”.
‘Shoulder to shoulder in the mud together’
It was the generosity of people that got the community through the initial period, Walker said.
“The magnanimous gesture on behalf of so many people got us through those dark days.”
On the first day back to the water-destroyed marae, they were about to do karakia when “so many of our whānau friends, and good Samaritans, who we didn’t even know, began arriving ... a small miracle”.
“That afternoon they helped us clean up and we were shoulder to shoulder in the mud together.”
Walker said the whānau and hapū of Puketāwai Marae would like to thank their whanaunga (relative) marae - Hauiti and Te Rawheoro - who had carried their tikanga and cultural responsibilities (such as holding hui) for the time they had been closed.
Their marae’s on-site kōhanga has been relocated to Tolaga Bay Area School for the period of rebuild and relocation, and they have also received advice from Heritage New Zealand regarding the preservation of their photo collection.
“From adversity to opportunity - that’s something we’ve seen often around here given the weather events and everything else,” Walker said.
“Every cloud has a silver lining.”
