Culture preservation in Mangere
Every week a number of women gather at the Massey Homestead in Mangere to socialise and protect their culture.
They learn and share music, and create arts and handicrafts.
All the women are of Niuean descent and get together to weave and prepare products for sale at their monthly Little Art & Craft Market.
Vaka Manu’kau Niue Community Trust chairperson Casey Smith says the Mangere-Otahuhu Local Board has helped them ‘‘acquire the lease for this property’’.
No one is charged to join the crafts groups but she says that they also receive support from the local board to hold workshops.
‘‘We’re self-funded at the moment. The Niuean community donates to the trust but that’s towards our bigger vision of getting a community building,’’ Smith says.
Most of their events are free and they utilise their resources which are from the ‘‘skills and people we have’’.
One of the groups, Tau Fifine Niue Tutu He Makatugi which translates to the ‘Women of Niue that stand on a burning rock’ has about 17 women that weave and learn the ukulele together.
The chairperson Tapuakimana Togiamua Efakims-Tongiopoe (pictured first from right) says she’s been weaving since she was eight years old. She moved from Niue to Auckland almost 50 years ago and has never looked back.
‘‘We do a lot of weaving, but we do not have resources like coconut sticks,’’ she says, which means they use a substitute product called raffia which is made from palm leaves.
These handicrafts are then sold at the cultural market with items such as a bowl typically selling for $70.
She says the community loves
‘‘The community loves the work we’ve been doing. We do a lot of weaving, but we do not have resources like coconut sticks. Financially, we need to support ourselves. That’s a downfall.’’
their work that they’ve been doing for the last four years, but ‘‘financially we need to support ourselves. That’s a downfall’’.