All in the family
It’s hard trying to work by yourself but when you’ve got other families around you, who can actually help out . . . that’s the ideal.
Some Tuhoe residents are already embracing communal living.
At the southern end of Ruatoki Valley Rd, the bitumen ends abruptly in bushland, and tracks guide you down to the sandy expanse of the Whakatane River flood plain. This is 4WD terrain. At the far end, there’s a cluster of about six homes that view the river drifting past. This is communal whanau living.
Jason Amoroa brought his family back to his wife’s family land for a better quality of life for their children. The family village works because everyone understands they have to contribute serious time and effort.
They farm pigs; they have their own water system. When the Weekend Herald visited, Noho Tuhaka was digging a drainage ditch.
Would they move to the new ecovillage? No, they’re very happy here, but they are supportive of the project, and prepared to help them get the journey started.
“For me, to get an insight into it, seeing it on paper and meeting with the developers and the council, and just sitting there and listening and going ‘Wow. This is actually happening’, I just feel happy this is happening in my time,” says Amoroa.
He says life in the valley can be hard and many are struggling, but they needn’t struggle alone. The new village will give them a leg-up, and the lessons learned from this one can only help the next one.
“It’s hard trying to work by yourself but when you’ve got other families around you, who can actually help out . . . that’s the ideal. The majority of people who live out there... look at the system as the support. ”
A wider family group live on whanau land closer to Ruatoki Valley Rd in basic housing, caravans and other structures. When the Weekend Herald visited, Ohine Riini-Reweti, 11, and Desrae Collier, 10, were entertaining themselves during the first week of school holidays, playing with makeshift gym equipment.
Reiroa Tiakiwai and Te Mana Maui were packing up horses to go on a week-long hunting trip in the Te Urewera ranges.
Any venison and pig they brought back would be shared among the residents for family dinners, with the agreement that whoever goes hunting next does the same. Others were rounding up cattle. Tiakiwai’s father Puni Tiakiwai had put a horse with a broken leg out of its misery. He thinks the new village is a great idea.
“There’s a lot of people living in the area who can’t afford a day off. It might help them. The only way you are going to get along with villages like this is, think family. ”