Source: Radio New Zealand
As the 25 January celebrations wind down on Sunday, the community at Rātana Pā, south of Whanganui, is preparing for renovations to Manuao, one of its most important buildings.
The large building complex at the centre of the community is used as a dining hall and accommodation among many other uses.
Project lead Talia Anderson-Town told RNZ as someone born and bred at Rātana Pā, it’s an exciting time.
“The community is very excited about what’s happening. You know, we have our temepara (temple) where we get our spiritual enlightenment, and for the Manuao it’s where we get our physical enlightenment.”
The front face of Manuao. RNZ/ Pokere Paewai
Rātana received $10.1 million from the government’s Regional Infrastructure Fund for the renovations, which Anderson-Town said they are thankful for.
“It’s a big project. It’s always been a big marae. And it’s been, you know, established to cater for the morehu (followers of the church) when they come back here into Rātana Pā, but more importantly it caters for the community as well.”
The project is expected to take 11 months. Anderson-Town said that will take a lot of hard work and involve some disruption to the small community as the renovations progress.
“So we’re here this year at the Rātana 25th celebrations 2026 to launch and show everyone what it’s going to look like. So over the next 11 months we’re going to have a build process and come back January 2027 will be the finished product of the Manuao building.”
What Manuao might look like after the changes are made. RNZ/ Pokere Paewai
Over the last 12 months the team has been meeting with the community, and with the morehu who use the building, to ensure it can last for another 50, 100 years, she said.
“Everyone had their opinions about what the new building would look like. Some wanted to maintain what was left and others wanted to modernise it. So what we’ve got is a bit of a cross section between that. We’ve got the original blueprints, so the square footage will stay the same, but the way we use the building will change.”
Those changes will involve sliding doors which will enable spaces to be opened up or closed off, meaning that it can serve the community for both small and large events, like the celebrations on 25 January, she said.
“It still has its initial functions but we’ve modernised it a little bit better, to be able to use it throughout the year and also to be able to use it as a conferencing facility for people to come and hire it.
“It’s a building that has a lot of maintenance and a lot of operating costs, and so to be able to hire it out in between our big hui it’ll mean that we’ll be able to be sustainable as well.”
A close up of the facade. RNZ/ Pokere Paewai
Anderson-Town said the construction will be lead by local Whanganui firm W&W Construction.
“So there’ll be the community involved in this build, and that’s probably one of the main reasons why we have used W&W is they know about our community, they hire within our community and they’re very passionate about making sure that this building serves our community as well.”
The main thing was to ensure that everyone had an opportunity to be a part of the build and that was first and foremost, she said. So a tono (request) was put out to any local or morehu run businesses who wanted to be involved.
“There are going to be a lot of locals that are going to be involved in the project and that’s one of the main things for us is for people to be able to say ‘I was a part of that project’, ‘I was a part of that build’… My kaumātua and my kuia were a part of the 1980 build when they actually built the Manuao and fundraised for it.”
Rātana Church spokesperson Kamaka Manuel said Manuao was born out of a dream of the church’s founder Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana.
“And so in 1980-81, this Manuao as we see it now was opened and it was the work of many, many hours of manpower by our grandparents and our great grandparents at the time of Rātana and has eventuated to what we see here today.”
A view of the full Manuao building. RNZ/ Pokere Paewai
The end of the 25 January celebrations will be the start of its next chapter, he said.
“So it’s an exciting time but it’s also a sad time because… the closing of this chapter means the closing of those memories and also… understanding that the efforts of our grandparents and our great-grandparents, they lived in a world very different to ours. And so when I talk about manpower, I’m not just only meaning physical manpower, I’m talking about the manpower that they took to come together as a people and fundraise. They fundraised, you know, to be able to get the resourcing in order to be able to establish our Manauo to what we see today.”
Minister for Regional Development Shane Jones said the concept of whakapono (faith) is an institution within the Māori community has a positive impact in creating well-adjusted and outward-thinking members of the Māori community.
“I’ve found within te ao Māori, infrastructure has a slightly different significance and when it bolsters institutions that are meaningful to the Māori community such as Ringatū and Waitangi, then it’s a contribution that’s durable and it’ll last many generations.”
Jones said all institutions from time to time need to upgrade their infrastructure.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
