High hopes for 'vertical papakāinga' multi-level Māori villages

Friday, 9 December 2022

The concept of a vertical papakāinga has been put forward as a way of meeting the housing needs of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua book says.

Vertical papakāinga could play a major role in Māori being able to live on the whenua they whakapapa back to, an Auckland hapu believes.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei is a hapu of the Ngāti Whātua iwi in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, and it’s work developing the concept of vertical papakāinga (housing) has been showcased in the Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua book published by Bridget Williams Books.

The hapu’s long-term vision is to ensure its people enjoy a high level of physical, emotional, spiritual and mental wellbeing, and housing is a part of that strategy.

It has been progressively developing low density housing on its land at Ōrākei, but with over 6000 members, but it may need to build higher to meet its aspirations.

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Across Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau intensification is underway as the city struggles to catch-up on years of failing to build enough homes, but there is no desire among Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to replicate the blocks across the city.

Instead, if it develops vertical papakāinga, it wants them to be an integral part of a thriving, healthy village with plenty of communal space, in which its people can live in ways that promote whānaungatanga, connection to their marae, and to the sea.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei wants whānau to return to “village life” in homes they can own, or rent with confidence of tenure, say authors Anahera Rawiri, Rau Hoskins and Irene Kereama-Royal.

“What is proposed is not just another apartment building, or cluster of housing units,” they say.

The concept of vertical kāinga includes communal spaces, such as shared lounges and rooftop gardens, and removable interior walls, so apartments could be reconfigured as whānau needs change.

Vertical papakāinga could also enable iwi to preserve as much precious whenua as possible, they say.

Anahera Rawiri worked with architect Rau Hoskins, and researcher Irene Kereama-Royal to author the chapter on vertical papakāinga in Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua.

Rawiri from Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei says the development of the papakāinga concept went back to 2018, and involved workshops with rangitahi and kaumātua.

She says the publication of the concept in Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua meant it could be shared widely.

“Lots of people are going to resonate with the concept,” she says.

That included iwi around the county which had secured back land under treaty settlements.

Leonie Pihama, senior research fellow at the Te Kōtahi Institute, University of Waikato, also a contributor to Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua, says: “There is a growing advocacy for a return to papakāinga as one means by which to reinstate and strengthen relationships amongst and between whānau.”

Maungakiekie, also often referred to as One Tree Hill, was once Tāmaki’s first high-density development, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei say.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has embarked on what it sees as a half century housing strategy, which could involve as much as $600 million of work to create a village in Orākei.

Vertical papakāinga could be part of that work, Rawiri says.

“I’ve always said, ‘I think this is our future’,” Rawiri says.

“We are on a journey, we are making steps forward to meet these aspirations of ours,” she says.

Numbers were put to those aspirations in the 2014 Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei census, in which 63% of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei would like to live near Orakei Marae, if they could.

The census found 85% would like to buy their own home, but 60% viewed this as impossible.

Rawiri, who lives in one of the kāinga developed on Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei land, says: “We say as Ngāti Whātua we were the first high density development in Tāmaki.

“We had 5000 people in the 1700s living on Maungakiekie, which is my ancestral mountain.”

“They had houses on every single level of that mountain. That way of living has been lost because of new ways of living that came to Tāmaki,” she says.