February 2011: Earthquakes allow Christchurch's culture to change
Wednesday, 17 February 2021
The stories of mana whenua are now woven into Christchurch after the previously English-designed city came crumbling down in the earthquakes.
British buildings, gardens, and statues that previously dominated the city are now next to Ngaī Tahu artworks, native planting, te reo Māori on paths and indigenous accentuated new buildings.
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is cemented into the new Christchurch, but it is a “weaving exercise” that will take years to come, Matapopore leaders say.
The organisation was set up by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) and Ngāi Tahu/Ngāi Tūāhuriri in 2014 to help iwi aspirations influence the rebuild.
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When Cera was created to manage the recovery, it had to consult with the iwi, which was co-opted on equal footing with the city and regional councils. Ngāi Tahu was also represented within Cera and involved in its recovery plan.
As former Ngāi Tūāhuriri ūpoko (head) Rakiihia Tau Senior told Te Karaka in July 2013, the city was a swamp and water was the most important resource needing to be highlighted.
“I’ve told them to do the rebuild in accordance with the will of the people. Get the rebuild done as harmoniously and peacefully as it can be.”
Matapopore general manager Debbie Tikao said Māori influences quickly began to show in anchor projects and school rebuilds, and private organisations also started reaching out for advice.
Stories of mana whenua were being championed within the city, with its awa (river) now the “hero” as Ngāi Tahu intended, she said.
“It was a bit unique. We were able to reimagine an entire city scape.
“It’s not just the artwork – it’s the orientation of the city, the way it functions.”
Public spaces were now connected to the river, evident with the terraces leading right to the water where people could watch the tuna (eels).
Ngāi Tahu representatives worked within design teams, and knowledge sharing relationships had formed within the rebuild sector where many architects were now carrying on the vision, she said.
“That’s been an incredible outcome.”
Te Pae convention centre would make a “significant statement” when it opened, with Ngāi Tahu artwork a major part. Matapopore was also involved in the design of High St.
“It will be very bold.”
The city now had a bicultural feeling, Tikao said.
“Christchurch was distinctly an English city, a garden city. Now that has really expanded and is really a city of stories now.
“It’s quite a significant shift.”
There were plans to become bolder with designs.
“This hadn’t been done before when we embarked on this journey. Now we are so much more involved than we were to begin with, and that will increase.
“It will never stop, it is an ongoing weaving exercise.”
They had high hopes for the design of the future stadium, Tikao said
Cultural advisor Lynne Te Aika felt the Treaty partnership had been enhanced tenfold since the earthquakes.
It had been a chance to reset and rebalance, like in Victoria Square where a Ngāi Tahu artwork now accompanied a statue of the Queen that stood alone since the early 1900s.
“We are able to tell a Treaty story through bringing the past into the present and carving out a new future.”
The mana whenua-influenced buildings and designs – like Lonnie Hutchinson’s Kahu Matarau wrapped around the justice precinct – would be “our cultural markers, just like churches were cultural markers for early settlers”.
They had plans to create an audio app that people could connect to, to hear the stories of mana whenua as they walked through the city and understood the surrounding narratives.
“[It’s] so that people feel a sense of wellbeing in the place they live.
“I can’t see the end of the journey at the moment.”