Help conserve an 1850s tōtara slab whare - rekindling connections with people, whakapapa and place

Dating to the 1850s, a humble single-roomed whare in Okains Bay supported whaler-sawyer John Joseph Fluerty/Flutey, his wife Merehana Puaha (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Māmoe), and their large whānau.

After Merehana's passing in 1858, John married Phoebe/Pipiana Howland (a daughter of Hare Tiki of Koukourarata and whaler Seth Howland), who raised the children as her own. Additions were made to the whare using recycled timber, and it was relocated within its paddock as an outbuilding to a larger homestead, built in the 1870s.

Phoebe inherited the farm after John's death in 1876, and it was sold after her passing in 1908.

The slab whare, of pit-sawn tōtara, was a type of house common in the early years of European settlement but is now very rare, with only a few examples left from the mid-nineteenth century remaining. It is believed to be the oldest dwelling in Okains Bay and one of the oldest in Banks Peninsula.

Although built of hardy tōtara, 170 years of farm life at Okains Bay has taken a toll, and it is in need of intervention to prevent its loss. Some of us who understand its significance have formed a charitable trust to undertake its restoration, conservation, and maintenance, and we are so grateful to the farm's owner for their generous offer to gift the whare to the trust.

Acting as friends and kaitiaki of the whare, we seek to ensure the whare remains standing on the whenua, restored to its 1850s configuration, to remain a tangible connection with people, whakapapa and place.