Matiti Urupa is slipping into the river!

Severe erosion of the river bank that edges onto Matiti Urupa have left our whanau of Huramua no option but to relocate our Tipuna that are buried there.

Matiti urupa is located at the end of Huramua Road and is situated on the bank of the Wairoa River. Our urupa is the final resting place for 55 tipuna that once settled in the area of Huramua.

Huramua is a small settlement outside of Wairoa Township. It was once the home to the Carroll family and 688 hectares of land was made available by the late Sir Turi Carroll to become ballot farms for soldiers returning home from WWII.

Matiti Urupa has tipuna from as early as 1903. Including Sir Turi Carroll himself and 7 Returned Serviceman alongside many other prominent Tipuna from Huramua.

Over the past 10 years our families of Huramua have undertaken to stabilize the rivers edge with tree planting and other remedial work. But the river continues to erode the river bank and we feel that our only solution is to move our Tipuna.

We have made an application to the Maori Land Court to change the purpose of a piece of land near the Huramua Marae to be used for the new site of the Urupa. We have investigated the costs involved with Exhumation and Repatriation of our tupuna and a figure of $265,000 is our target goal to achieve this.

With all the whanau on board we have now started the mammoth task of finding the funds needed. Our whanau have started fundraising with dinners and gala events planned to be held soon.

We have a small funding team that is working alongside organisations such as HBRC, WDC, Dept of Internal Affairs, TPK, WWMTB, Taiwhenua to apply for funding. HBRC has already come on board and committed financial assistance, so we must thank Fenton Wilson and his team for the support that has been given.

A Give-a-little page has been set up for donations. We would like to thank all those that have already made donations.

The road ahead of us, as kaitiaki is huge. But we are going to see this through and we are going to do it together as a whanau.