Within a year of being launched, the Makahae Marae Papakainga Project, initiated by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council and Tapuika Iwi, has completed all but one step towards the building of the first houses on Maori-owned land.

The papakainga project was launched on the Makahae Marae near Te Puke in May 2009 along with a Maori Housing Toolkit (Te Keteparaha Mo Nga Papakainga) detailing a five-step programme for the development of houses.

Last month the project was featured at the National Maori Housing Conference in Rotorua attended by whanau, hapu and Iwi groups from across the country, as well as government agencies such as Housing NZ, Maori Land Court and Te Puni Kokiri.

At the hui project manager Dean Flavell and SmartGrowth Tangata Whenua representative Te Pio Kawe gave a presentation on the Te Puke papakainga vision as a key example of what can be achieved by Maori with the support of key joint agencies.

Dean says the success of the Te Puke project has been due to the ongoing relationships between the iwi, the Western Bay of Plenty District and Tauranga City councils, Waiariki and Waikato Maniapoto Maori Land Courts, Te Puni Kokiri, Housing New Zealand and Environment Bay of Plenty.

“Working collectively has enabled us to overcome the barriers of bureaucracy and access to finance that Maori have historically faced when addressing affordable housing and economic land use on multiple-owned land,” says Dean.

A Papakainga Focus Group formed early in the project has worked with both Western Bay and Tauranga City councils on their revised District Plans to bring more alignment between rules in relation to Maori housing on multiple-owned land.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council group manager Steve Hill says the housing project has full support of SmartGrowth because it embraces the SmartGrowth aim to help Maori develop their land for residential, social and economic use.

“The tangata whenua representatives to SmartGrowth have raised consistently that housing on multiple-owned land is an urgent need across the Western Bay,” says Steve.

“This is the first housing model to be based on a full agency approach and also the first to have a toolkit that provides a practical, hands-on guide for the entire project.”

The project has completed the first three steps and stage four (house design/governance/technical advice) is in draft form, leaving only step five to achieve. Step five is a business case for the papakainga development plan and this will be completed in June this year.

Other regions are pursuing their own papakainga initiatives, says Dean but the difference with the Western Bay project is the involvement of the joint agencies every step of the way.

“The agencies are still part of the process. We are working with staff to produce a practical working model. The buy-in from the agencies is the main difference with the Western Bay project and has resulted in our project being tailor made for us and by us.”

Speaking at the Rotorua conference Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell spoke of the “fantastic initiative” taken by Tapuika Iwi to utilise their own ancestral land for papakainga.

“The possibility of building papakainga housing on multiply owned Maori land has been something our people have been calling for – it seems – for ever” said Te Ururoa.

He also lauded the National Party initiative of developing Kainga Whenua – the collaboration of the Government with KiwiBank and Housing New Zealand to enable Maori to loan up to $200,000 towards building, re-locating or purchasing housing on multiple-owned land.