Te Puea Memorial Marae is a marae located in Māngere Bridge, Auckland, New Zealand. Opened in 1965, it was the first urban marae in Auckland, built for ngā hau e whā (all Māori), but in particular as a community centre for local Urban Māori communities around Onehunga and Māngere, and for the Waikato Tainui iwi. The marae is named for Māori leader and relative of King Mahuta, Te Puea Hērangi, and is known by the whakataukī (proverb) te kei o te waka o Tainui (the stern of Tainui), as it is the northernmost Waikato Tainui marae.
The marae has been used as an events centre, and since 2016 the marae has provided transitional housing and emergency provisions for people experiencing Homelessness in New Zealand.
History
Land history
The land where the marae stands was part of the rohe of the Waiohua confederacy of Tāmaki Māori until the 1740s, subsequently settled by Ngāti Whātua until 1840. In the 1820s and early 1830s, the threat of Ngāpuhi raiders from the north during the Musket Wars caused most of the Tāmaki Makaurau area to become deserted. During this period, a peace accord between Ngāpuhi and Waikato Tainui was reached through the marriage of Matire Toha, daughter of Ngāpuhi chief Rewa, to Kati Takiwaru, the younger brother of Tainui chief Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (later the first Māori King), and they settled together near Māngere Mountain. In the late 1840s, Governor George Grey asked Pōtatau Te Wherowhero to settle with his people in the Māngere Bridge area to defend the township of Auckland. Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and members of Ngāti Mahuta (a hapū of Waikato Tainui) settled near to the land where his brother Kati Takiwaru lived, an area of 480 acres around the base of Māngere Mountain. Most of the inhabitants left in the 1860s prior to the Invasion of the Waikato, when Governor Grey required that all Māori living in the South Auckland area needed to swear loyalty to the Queen, due to the government's fears of the Māori King Movement. On 16 May 1865, the Ngāti Mahuta village at Māngere Bridge was seized by the Crown under the New Zealand Settlements Act 1863.
In 1890, some of the land at Māngere Bridge was returned to three individuals from Ngāti Mahuta: King Tāwhiao, Ihipera Kati Barlow, a descendant of Kati Takiwaru and Matire Toha, and Tiahuia, mother to Te Puea Hērangi. Barlow was given the title to the land at Lot 5A, the future site of Te Puea Memorial Marae. By the early 20th Century, this land had become farmland for the Rewha family. In addition to the farmland, Lot 5A included a sandy beach and a natural source of spring water, where people would wash clothes.
In 1933, a petition to the government was made to set aside one acre of land for a wharenui and marae, however plans did not eventuate due to the effects of the Great Depression. By the 1940s, the local community began to prefer building a marae at Onehunga to the north.
In 1947, the land where the marae was to be built was gifted to the community by Parehuingauru Barlow, wife of Hoka Rewha who had farmed the land. Barlow gifted the land to ngā hau e whā (all Māori), and not Tainui specifically. In December 1947, the reserve was vested in a 16-member trust, whose members included Te Puea Hērangi. Hērangi was a major proponent for reestablishing marae across the country, and before passing in 1958, expressed a wish for a marae to be built at the site.
Opening and surrounding land development
In 1963, the Māngere and Onehunga communities were greatly affected by the Brynderwyn bus accident, as a large number of people in the accident were from the area. In the aftermath, the Onehunga community struggled to accommodate the tangihanga they needed to host for the community members. Prime Minister Keith Holyoake and opposition leader Walter Nash, who both attended the tangi in Onehunga, noticed the lack of space and resources that the community was facing, and agreed for the government to co-finance a marae after witnessing the difficulties. Fundraising came from a range of places, including community fundraising from the Māori community hall in Onehunga, and profits from felling macrocarpa trees on the property and quarrying scoria from Māngere Mountain.