Te Ahu opening

Rau rangatira mā, e kui ma, e koro ma, e huihui nei, tēnei aku mihi māhana ki a koutou.  Kia ora tātou katoa.  Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, warm greetings to you all.

I specifically acknowledge: Your Worship Wayne Brown, Mayor of the Far North and Chair of the Te Ahu Charitable Trust—tēnā koe; Haami Piripi, Chairman of Te Rūnanga o Te Rarawa and your chief executive Kevin Robinson, who is also a Te Ahu trustee— tēnā korua; Mark Osborne, General Manager of Te Ahu—tēnā koe; Mike Sabin, MP for Northland.

It’s great to be back here in the Far North.  This is my third visit to the region as Governor-General, and each visit has been different as you would expect.   My visits have included the formal welcome by Ngāpuhi at Otiria Marae in November last year.  I also visited Kaikohe and Kerikeri in the lead up to the Waitangi Day celebrations in February.  And it was during that last visit that Mayor Brown asked me to return and open this facility.

Before I open this complex – Te Ahu – by untying the harekeke ribbons at each end of it, I will speak of the significance of this event and this new facility.

The opening of new community complex is, of course, always a neat event.  I agreed to attend this opening event because this community facility immediately struck me as special.  Its story is special, and what it represents is special.

This complex represents the pursuit and achievement of a community’s goals and aspirations, of community progress and community pride.  It represents the culmination of countless hours of meetings, discussions, planning and fundraising before even the first sod was turned. 

It represents those quintessential Kiwi traits of volunteering, hard work and an ingenious can-do attitude.

It also represents excellence in design and innovation.   By bringing together on one site the Far North Regional Museum’s exhibition space, the Kaitaia Library, the Council Service Centre, the i-site information centre as well as a community theatre and movie centre, a cafe and a number of bookable meeting rooms, it is a fantastic resource.  This complex will form a central focus for both Kaitaia and for and all the communities of the Far North.  On all these levels, and more, Te Ahu scores highly.

Te Ahu, however, goes further by tapping into the deep cultural and environmental heritage of the Far North.  It is the final departure point for those who cross over to the other side to join our ancestors.  It is here in the Far North that Te Hiku o te Ika a Māui bisects the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea and where the currents of those two great bodies of water merge.

And it is in this region that peoples from around the world have met.  The peoples of Te Tai Tokerau played a prominent role during the earliest contact with Pākehā.  In the early times, the Bay of Islands was at the centre of trade and commerce with the rest of the world.  It was in the Far North that New Zealand’s first Christian mission was built.

One of those peoples from afar who have made the Far North their home were the “tarara ”—the Dalmatians.  One of those descendants included the late Dame Miraka Szaszy, the first Māori woman to graduate with a degree from Auckland University and President of the Māori Women’s Welfare League in the mid-1970s.  Dame Mira’s life spanned her Dalmatian and iwi affiliations of this rohe.  She made a major contribution to Aotearoa New Zealand. 

And it was in the Far North that New Zealand as a modern nation was founded and its first capital was established at Kororāreka.  For if Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the birthing document of New Zealand, and then surely Te Tai Tokerau was its first cradle.

As symbolised in the facility logo, Te Ahu, is a place where all these pathways intersect.  It is a place for everyone—Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kahu and other iwi, Pākehā, Dalmatians and the other cultures who have chosen the Far North as their home. 

The symbolism of the two wings of the complex; representing the Tasman and Pacific, and the Atrium as the central focus where they meet is exquisite.  Inside, the sea shells in the concrete floor and the perspex kuaka, or godwits, ascending lead eventually to the library - the building’s “forest” – the great storehouse of knowledge are superb.  A series of pou will be  installed to represent the peoples of the rohe.  The museum, library and i-site information centre will continue to tell those wonderful stories to both locals and visitors alike.

The Trust that stands behind this magnificent venture set as its vision that Te Ahu would be a “landmark meeting place” for both local people and visitors that nurtured and shared the stories and cultures of this community.    Standing here outside Te Ahu it is clear that that vision has been more than achieved.  Te Ahu will stand here for generations to come at the heart of this community, representing all the best of the Far North and its peoples and their aspirations for a better future.

It gives me great pleasure then to declare Te Ahu officially open. 

Kia ora huihui tātou katoa.