A Bay of Plenty Marae

All photos May 2009. Ajr
The tiny settlement of Kutarere sits in the eastern Bay of Plenty, 30 kilometres from Whakatane and 20 kilometres from Opotiki. Once the port town of Ohiwa Harbour, servicing the hinterland, today it is little more than a cluster of houses that line the main road. In 2005 the population was just 15. When I past through recently, I never even saw that many people.

All photos May 2009. Ajr

But I did stop at the cute wee Kutarere Church (which I’ll show another time), and, just a few metres down the road, the Kutarere Marae, pictured here, which has recently undergone major renovations. The area is steeped in Maori history and it’s home to the people of Te Upokorehe, one of the six sub-tribes of Te Whakatohea and the beautiful wharenui is called Te Poho o Tamaterangi. There also appear to be tribal links to Tuhoe via the hapu Turanga Pikitoa of the Maungapohatu tribal group – but just a little complex for me to work out for sure. If I’m wrong in that, I’m happy to be corrected via a comment left below.