Much more than a hall
The update on Oruru ¯ Hall public meeting at the Eastern clubrooms on Sunday September 8 brought around 60 people together to hear what’s on the table next for Swamp Palace.
Our organisation, the O¯ ruru and Inland Valleys Association Incorporated (OIVA), has been battling the FNDC for years now to get the hall’ structural integrity reinstated. We are continuing the battle to make this a reality.
To those who are not at the coalface of this mission, it may seem that this is not the case. Let me assure everyone that I am only one of many people over the last 20 years (though I should say it’s more like 50 years now) who have personally dedicated an enormous number of unpaid hours, days, nights and at various times weeks in a row of dedicated, voluntary service to the various aspects of “getting stuff happening” for the O¯ ruru Hall. A huge amount of time, energy and love have been given by many to this very project.
Some involved in this process have passed away, waiting for council promises to transform into reality. It is for all these people, as well as those still here today who have done their utmost to get the O¯ ruru Hall what she so desperately deserves, that we carry on.
Council’s strategies on managing its own halls and public buildings, from the 2015 district plan, state that FNDC will do the following:
■ Ensure that communities’ current and future needs for halls or similar facilities are met;
■ Ensure that communities take active roles in facilitating the provision of an appropriate number of accessible, safe and well maintained facilities;
■ Encourage and enhance the capability of communities to improve their facilities.
The 2015 plan also clearly states that ‘Council takes responsibility for the maintenance of the external envelope of the building, building compliance (BWOF), insurance, and maintenance of effluent fields, water supplies, car parks and fences of any halls that it owns,’ and ‘The cost of funding for asset renewal is a significant cost that Council MUST provide for..
OIVA have done everything required of us (as the hall committee) under FNDC’s own 2015 policy on halls and community buildings.
The FNDC has not.
Before we made our presentation to the Council meeting in October 2018, we had a stream of different “go-to” people at council with whom we were dealing. Some were helpful and some were not. Despite being told “You’re at the top of the list” on a number of occasions over years gone by, nothing solid ever eventuated.
The process of how something goes from a need in a community to becoming a reality involves a certain belief in the concept that those holding positions within local government are there for the right reasons. These people need a degree of uncompromised integrity, and they need to know how to listen. I understand the frustration many have felt over the O¯ ruru Hall issue. It goes back a ridiculously long time. We’ve been ignored and pushed back to the “next financial year” across terms of many different councils in the Far North, but no more. Waving the ‘We’ve been ripped off’ banner about isn’t going to fix O¯ ruru Hall.
OIVA has come to a point where we are far more aware than ever before of what we absolutely have to do to get this across the line. There is no room for any sort of relaxed complacency if this is to happen. We are a force that is gathering momentum, and hope we have more community support than ever before. Things are moving now for O¯ ruru Hall. Someone finally listened and hasn’t run away. John Carter has been the best voice we’ve had at the FNDC so far, and for that we are most grateful.
The targeted rate proposal is an option we know can easily work to get the O¯ ruru Hall fixed and back in action. But it does require the support of 75 per cent of those in the targeted area.
We hope that the FNDC and those who felt that the O¯ ruru Hall should become a haybarn finally understand that our widespread community within the valleys of Doubtless Bay deserves to have a million-dollar building that is finally worthy of its own historical value on many levels, for both Ma¯ ori and
Pa¯ keha¯ .
As Niki Tauhara informed the gathering on Sunday, O¯ ruru means The Echo, or one hill that calls to the next.
The O¯ ruru Hall is not simply an old building in need of repair that happens to have beautiful acoustics and a meaningful history. As many of us have always known, it is much, much more than just that!
KATH ADAMS
Deputy Chair Oruru ¯ and Inland Valleys Assn