History of Karewa Island - Part 2

The Tuatara Collectors
(contd from Part 1)

Karewa Island is a pest free wildlife sanctuary, administered by the Department of Conservation. Inhabited by fur seals, tītī (mutton birds) and other seafaring birds. It is also the home of tuatara (Hatteria punctata).  For Tauranga’s iwi, the island was an important, traditional harvesting place for tītī, paua and koura (crayfish). Karewa’s tuatara were, and remain, creatures of great cultural significance for Tauranga Māori. Viewed variously as mythological ancestors and kaitiaki or guardians of knowledge, misfortune, calamities and death might also be attributed to tuatara, which during the 1800s, often horrified the Māori who saw them.¹

Departing Tauranga for the Bay of Islands on the little schooner Glatton in March 1838, the missionary William Wade said of tuatara:

The island Karewa, off Tauranga, is said to swarm with them. Although perfectly harmless, the lizard is held in great abhorrence by the New Zealanders, who say it is the form or resemblance of Wiro, the evil Spirit.²

Karewa, as seen by voyagers approaching the Island and Tauranga from the north-east

Karewa’s tuatara were frequently collected by visiting overseas scientists as specimens for study, and for exhibition in public and private museums, and zoos. As noted in Part One, German naturalist Ernest Dieffenbach failed to personally obtain a tuatara from the island due to bad weather in June 1841. He eventually acquired a specimen in Auckland, originally obtained from Karewa by Rev James Stack who was based at the Te Papa mission station.³ Dieffenbach later gifted the ‘Tuatera’ to the British Museum, though whether alive or dead is not clear.

Twenty tuatara were taken to Europe by the German geologist Julius Von Haast, who, along with fellow geologist Ferdinand Von Hochstetter, visited Tauranga in May 1859. All are believed to have been taken from Karewa Island, and all survived the homeward voyage. Six were presented to the King of Belgium and fourteen placed in the Berlin and Vienna Zoological Gardens.⁴

Ferdinand Von Hochstetter

In 1873, Tauranga resident and colonial soldier Gilbert Mair sent two tuatara from Karewa to the British Museum, though sending them by post was not without its risks.⁵ In 1868, Major St John of the 1^st Waikato Regiment reported from a sunny hillside overlooking Tauranga harbour.

Lying lazily on the clover covered ground, and well shaded by a big "rimu," we had a perfect panorama before us. Tauranga harbour and the coast line, northward and southward for many miles could be all taken in at almost one glance; and out at sea rose several islands: the Great Barrier, a mountainous mass; Motiti, or Flat Island; and, nearest of all, Karewa, a rocky islet abounding in obsidian, and the home of a peculiar lizard, something like a small iguana. They are not handsome beasts these lizards, but they are pretty tenacious of life. One was sent a long distance by post, and arrived safe at his journey's end; another, I was assured, had eaten nothing for three weeks, and I was invited to go and look at it; in this case however, the fast had proved too protracted, and, when the box was opened, the brute was as dead as Julius Caesar.⁶

Major John Henry Herbert St John of the 1st Waikato Regiment

Andreas Reischek, an Austrian taxidermist, naturalist, ornithologist and collector, undertook extensive collecting expeditions throughout New Zealand. He was also notorious for robbing Māori graves and the treasures of their occupants during his expeditions. Living in New Zealand from 1877 to 1889, the specimens of fauna and flora that he collected for New Zealand and overseas museums and private collections included tuatara, on which he reported:

On all the larger islands they live principally on insectivorous foods, such as beetles, grubs, wetas, grasshoppers, flies, etc., which I found on dissecting. I think where such food — which they prefer even in confinement — is plentiful, they will not prey on birds.

But on my visit to Karewa Island, at the beginning of 1885, I saw many young birds with their heads off, and I followed one of these lizards with a bird of considerable size in its mouth, which tried to escape in a burrow, but got stuck at the entrance. They catch the bird by its head, and then chew until it is devoured. My opinion is that, as this island is small, and these lizards so numerous, this is the reason they prey upon birds.

On December 10, the boatman informed me that we should have to leave these islands, as bad weather was expected. I left unwillingly, for time had been all too short.⁷

Andreas Reischek

Māori were not alone in finding tuatara strange and sinister creatures. In May 1876, the Evening Post recorded considerable public interest in thirteen recently acquired living tuatara at Wellington’s Colonial Museum:

Some were almost two feet in length, described as ‘having an exceedingly sinister aspect, strongly resembling crocodiles with spiky backs and extensive smiles. However, they are quite harmless and very gentle, the thirteen living peacefully together; quite a happy family amongst their artificial rockwork, grazing pastorally on the worms, with which they are liberally supplied.’ People were startled by their sudden movement after seeing them completely motionless.⁸

While safe from the introduced pigs and ships’ rats that killed off their mainland relatives, Karewa’s tuatara were regularly captured by well-meaning locals and amateur naturalists.

Two specimens taken from the Island were donated to the Auckland Institute by H. T. Clarke, almost certainly Henry Tacey Clarke (1825-1902), the son of missionary George Clarke. Henry ‘served in the military, spoke fluent Maori, was a registered interpreter, a Native Land Court Judge, and Commissioner of Tauranga’.⁹ The anonymous writer, who contributed an article titled ‘A North Island Trip’ in the Cromwell Argus in 1880, mentioned that in 1873 he had visited Karewa Island, ‘home of the giant lizard,’ to obtain specimens.¹⁰

Tuatara were also taken from Karewa by some of Tauranga’s early European settlers, who kept them as novel garden pets and conversation pieces - sometime held  in place with a light chain around their necks.¹¹ As late as 1908, the New Zealand Herald reported how a Mr G. Norris, who had kept ‘a large collection of these strange pets’ at Tauranga had moved to Dunedin taking some of his tuatara with him.  Mr Norris ‘stated that he had kept tuataras ever since he could remember and had so many in his possession at one time, that he was in a position to speak with some authority about their habits’.¹²

Sketched by J. Ernest Tinne, an English tourist at an unidentified location in 1873, these tuatara have been chained in place in a garden

In January 1914, the Herald reported on another ‘gentleman at Tauranga [who] has had a number of tuatara in his garden for many years, brought from Karewa’.¹³ An Auckland naturalist once took 12 tuatara from Karewa Island, for study and as pets for his Ponsonby garden. They caused a short lived, local sensation one morning in March 1887, when they were seen and reported by a panic-stricken milkman who mistook them for snakes.¹⁴

 

In 1895, tuatara were protected by law, one of New Zealand’s first native species to be so safeguarded, but they were still poached and continue to be poached for private collections.¹⁵ Today, Karewa’s predator free 3.5 hectares are administered by the Department of Conservation (DOC) in close co-operation with Tauranga tangata whenua, who own the island. In recognition of its important cultural values and status as a pest free wildlife sanctuary, landing on the island is prohibited without a DOC permit. Additionally, access is by boat and visitors must be accompanied by DOC staff after going through biosecurity checks.¹⁶

A Karewa Island tuatara from Andreas Reischeck’s book Yesterdays in Maoriland

References

 

¹ Thomson, Arthur, The Story of New Zealand, Vol 1, John Murray, London, 1859: 29. Best Elsdon, Maori Religion and Mythology, Part 1, Wellington, Government Printer, 1982: 460.

² Wade, William, Journey in the North Island of New Zealand, George Rolwegan, Hobart, 1842: 178.

³ Von Hochstetter, Ferdinand, New Zealand: Its Physical Geography, Geology and Natural History, J.G. Cotta, Stuttgart, 1867: 442.

⁴ Bay of Plenty Times, 4 May 1936: 2.

⁵ Tinne, J; The Wonderland of the Antipodes, Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, London, 1873: 84.

⁶ St John, J.H.H. Pakeha Rambles in Maori Lands, Robert Burrett, Wellington, 1873: 123.

⁷ Andreas Reischek, Yesterdays In Maoriland: New Zealand in the Eighties, Wilson and Horton, Auckland, 1930: 100.

⁸ Evening Post, 12 May 1876: 2.

⁹ Edwards, Vivien, A Dinosaur From Karewa, Friday, 18 October 2021, Tauranga Historical Society

¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹ Tinne, 1873: 84.

¹² New Zealand Herald, 11 November 1908: 5.

¹³ Ibid: 31 January 1914: 1.

¹⁴ Auckland Star, 1 March 1887: 3.

^{15 Tuatara: New Zealand reptiles DOC. https://www.doc.govt.nz › nature › reptiles-and-frogs}

¹⁶  Site 68. Karewa Island Risk Ranking, https ://www.boprc.govt.nz › media › karewa

Images

Sladden Bernard, 1879-1961, Karewa Island, Ms 33/5/84, photographic collection, Pae Koroki, Tauranga City Libraries.

Photographer unknown, Ferdinand von Hochstetter, circa. 1865, Website Naturhistorisches, Museum, Wien, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_von_Hochstetter

Photographer unknown. Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Herbert St John. Ref: 1/2-028459-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

Photographer unknown, Andreas Reischeck, 1902, Wikipedia, http://wikipedia.org/wiji/andreasreischek

Tinne, J; The Wonderland of the Antipodes, Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, London, 1873: 84.

Reischek, Andreas, Yesterdays In Maoriland: New Zealand in the Eighties, Wilson and Horton, Auckland, 1930: 100.

Tauranga Heritage Collection web site

Landing page of the Tauranga Heritage Collection browser, where you can search the collection in a variety of ways. Image courtesy of Tauranga Museum

Tauranga Museum team are working hard to make the Tauranga Heritage Collection accessible to as many people as possible. The digitisation of the collection is an important part of this goal. The project started a few years ago and we now have close to 16,000 objects available to view online at https://view.taurangaheritagecollection.co.nz/explore

Objects are uploaded nearly every day and we encourage visitors to keep checking in to see what is new. Our photographer, Michal Pinkerton, takes photographs of the highest quality which ensures that the objects are represented as accurately as possible and can be viewed from all angles. Here is a selection of objects which have been added to the website in the last few weeks.

Tobacco cutter 4450/84. Image courtesy of Tauranga Museum

Used for cutting plugs for pipe smokers, this McMillan’s Rotary Tobacco Cutter had more chopping power than was needed for domestic purposes and is likely to have been owned by a grocer or tobacco shop. By the 1920s this instrument was largely obsolete as cigarette sales dominated the market.

Marine Compass, MV Rena 0188/16. Image courtesy of Tauranga Museum

On October 5, 2011, the MV Rena, a container vessel, carrying a mixed cargo from Napier to Tauranga ran aground on Ōtāiti (Astrolabe Reef), 12 nautical miles off the Bay of Plenty coast. What ensued was New Zealand’s worst maritime environmental disaster. This compass was salvaged from the wreck. An investigation found that it was not used by the crew when they took the Rena off course, and this was a contributing factor in the disaster.

Beer advertisement 0585/86. Image courtesy of Tauranga Museum

Founded by W. Joseph Coutts and his three sons, The Waitemata Brewery Co. (later known as Dominion Breweries) began production in Otahuhu in 1929, which is still in operation today. It was the following year that the revolutionary Waitemata Sparkling Ale was produced and only quite recently, in 1999, was it discontinued. Marketing for the beer often made grand claims that it was “a tonic” and “good for you” with one series of advertising promoting the ale as a drink that could prolong one’s life!

Going Downhill

The Taioma passing the Tauranga Domain, 8 April 1979
Image: Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 07-368

When talking about the tug Taioma, formerly Empire Jane, I always recall hearing of its journey to the Tauranga Historic Village in 17th Avenue. The perils of transporting a 232 tonne tug down the busiest road in Tauranga makes the basis of a good story.  I’m told that on Sunday 8 April 1979 I stood with my family, and many other Tauranga residents, to watch its progress down Cameron Road. I wish I could remember it. Fortunately the man behind the project, Sir Robert Owens, spoke of the day’s events in an oral history recording conducted by James Harstonge in May 1992.

“I’d been chasing this tug around the place for a considerable time and talked to BP who supplied us with fuel. I talked to the boss in Wellington and he said, oh well, you can have it but keep the BP logo on the funnel. So we had to tow it up from Wellington, and it weighed about 340 tonnes so we had a job of getting it on the slip, as it wouldn’t take a 340 tonne ship, so we had to take quite a bit of weight off her. From there the transfer onto the trailer was a tremendous job, and Freightways – they had the heavy haul gear in those days – and John Dale, they gave me a very good rate, very kind, and we got on with the business.”

A tense time as the Taioma is transported down 17th Avenue, 9 April 1979
Image: Tauranga Heritage Collection

“Well from an advertising point of view we all came out of it very well because that day we shifted her up the hill and into Cameron Road, we had to shift power poles and all sorts of things and she came along, and then we got her to the museum and it was getting a bit dark and so we decided we wouldn’t try taking her down the hill. We parked her across the road for the night and then we had an anchor truck behind her with forty tonnes of sand in, that was one of our trucks, and we put it on behind and this driver, a Maori guy, a hell of a nice guy, I was walking with him and there was obviously a bit of tension there and so we started on the dip and she started to go and of course the anchor truck was at an absolute dead stop and smoke started from the tires and she gathered momentum, lost me, I was running at that stage but I couldn’t keep up with her and the anchor truck passed me and the smoke from the tires was terrible. Anyway we got to the bottom and I ran up to the driver and he was the whitest Maori I’ve ever seen in my life. It was a big laugh after that because the rest of the journey was easy, but we ruined the tires.”

Official opening of the Taioma, 23 June 1979. Sir Robert Owens can be seen addressing the crowd
Photograph by Bob Tulloch, Bay Sun
Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 09-063

Officially opened by Sir Keith Holyoake on 23 June 1979, the Taioma became a star attraction at The Village. So much so that an additional charge for going onboard helped to pay for the tug’s maintenance. The trip down Cameron Road had been described as the boat’s last journey. However, with the closure of The Village in 1998, the Taioma eventually travelled to its final resting place on the sea floor off Motiti Island. While this journey was made at night along the Takitimu Expressway, it was still witnessed by many whose nostalgia compelled them to catch a final glimpse of the old tug.

The Taioma travelling down Takitimu Expressway, March 2000
Image: Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 14-0147

References

(i) Several websites including these two record the weight of the vessel as 232 tonnes. http://www.tynetugs.co.uk/empirejane1944.html & https://www.shipspotting.com/photos/1718613
(ii) To listen to the entire recording, which covers many aspects of the city’s development under Sir Bob’s leadership, visit https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/20911
(iii) http://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2014/09/memorabilia-from-tug-taioma.html

Wiremu "Bill" Ohia, 1922-1992

Bill Ohia talking to Ernest Bush, former Society Journal editor, at Papamoa Hills
35mm film negative. Photograph taken for Bay of Plenty PhotoNews, No 69, 30 May 1970, p.57
Image courtesy of Pae Koroki, Ref. pn-7646

Bill was a man who was very aware of the history of his ancestors in Tauranga Moana and consequently extremely socially active all his 70 years in Waitao. He was one of the older sons of the twelve children of Hone Ohia, who farmed in close proximity to three marae belonging to Ngati Pukenga iwi.

Bill was born in the Te Puke Maternity Annexe, as was his only child Rahera. He attended the Pāpāmoa Native School (which later became Pāpāmoa Māori School and is now Te Kura Kaupapa Māori ō Otepou). When the school was Pāpāmoa Māori School, Bill’s daughter Rahera was a pupil there and his wife Hinemanu (a McLean of Tainui Descent from the Waikato) a teacher there. While Rahera was attending Tauranga Girls’ College, Bill served on the Tauranga Girls College Board of Governors.

Bill was a keen scuba diver who, if he wasn’t tied up with other things, went diving every weekend for kaimoana and often took his cousins, nephews and nieces along to teach them about the sea. Bill, by this time, was also farming in Waitao and he helped set up and run the Rangataua Young Farmers Club. Bill was the first Māori town supply farmer in the area.

Tauranga Moana Trust Board's Original Fund-raising Committee, 1953. (Left to Right) T. Te Kani, F.N. Pinfold, I. Tangitu, W. Ohia, R.G. Faulkner (inset) Tom Peek
Image courtesy of the Tauranga Moana Trust Board

The Tauranga Moana Māori Trust Board was formed after the iwi and hapū of Tauranga sought to make it known what had transpired between their ancestors and the Crown to enable colonial settlement of the area, and the establishment of Tauranga. It was the culmination of the work of a number of people over many years, including Bill, Turi Te Kani, Bob Falconer (then Director of the Department of Māori Affairs), Fred Pinfold and Ike Tangitu. The Trust Board was created to receive compensation from the Crown for lands that had been taken through confiscation. Bill was the inaugural chairman of this trust board, a position he retained for many years.

He was also the chair of the Waikato Maniapoto District Maori Council and a member of many other Maori organisations in the Western Bay of Plenty. One of these was the Tauranga Maori Cultural and Promotional Committee an initiative begun with Archie Clark, the city’s Public Relations Officer at the time. Apart from Bill and Hinemanu, that committee included Turi Te Kani, Charlie Kuka, Tim Smith, Sonny and Moira Rolleston and others.  The aim of the committee was to give voice to Māori cultural and civic aspirations. This committee started the annual National Māori Cultural Championships which many years later became Te Matatini.

Bill was a member of the Trotting Club (he owned race horses), the Aero Club (he was a pilot as was his brother Monty and Uncle, Barney Kahotea) and the Rotary and Lions Clubs (he was community-minded). So he was of many diverse networks. Through their contacts, he and his wife were part of a group who trialed a Māori Radio station based at the 17th Ave Historic Village which at the time was under the directorship of Noel Nicholls. Later, Bill became the inaugural Chair of Aotearoa Māori Radio, when the government of the day agreed to set aside part of the AM frequency for Maori Radio.

Tauranga Moana Trust Board's Fund-raising Committee, 1955. (Back Row) J. Foster, P. Rewiti, W. Ohia. (Front Row) F.N. Pinfold, I. Tangitu, C.H.D. Porter
Image courtesy of the Tauranga Moana Trust Board

According to Rahera her Dad, Noel Nicholls, "Uncle Turi, Uncle Charlie and others" (all of whom were determined that everyone should know the full history of the area) were part of a group who negotiated to get permission to clear Mauao of its dense scrub cover so that evidence of early Maori occupation was visible. She was roped in with others to trek to the summit most weekends to clear the scrub. The road to the summit was then created by Jack and Roger Prince with their heavy machinery, and when it was all done she and her father and Alan Clarke (a teacher from Mount Maunganui College) identified, measured and recorded all the pā sites there. This was all designed to make the Māori history of the area visible for all and to stimulate people’s curiosity so that they might want to know more.

Bill Ohia talking to the Tauranga Historical Society on the Papamoa Hills
35mm film negative. Photograph taken for Bay of Plenty PhotoNews, No 69, 30 May 1970, p.57
Collection of Tauranga City Library, Nga Wahi Rangahu. Image courtesy of Pae Koroki, Ref. pn-7638

In the 1980s, Bill moved from farming to orcharding and he grew kiwifruit, avocados, boysenberries and apples. The exposure to the kiwifruit industry led him and Turi Te Kani (also an orchardist, but at Matapihi) to champion Māori ownership of their own packhouse, so they began Te Awanui Hukapak, a symbol of their independence and the commercial intent and capability of Māori communities.

Bill Ohia receives his Queen's Service Order from the Governor General, Sir Paul Reeves, in 1988
Image courtesy of Rahera Ohia

Bill played a number of roles in the evolution of Tauranga and was awarded the QSO in 1988.

Turi died under tragic circumstances in around 1990, and sadly his long time and close friend Bill died in equally tragic circumstances in 1992. They were each mourned by thousands at Matapihi and Waitao respectively.

The Old Dairy Company Building

Opening of the Tauranga Dairy Factory, cnr 11th Ave/Devonport Rd, 2 October 1910
Image courtesy of Pae Koroki, Ref. 99-1181

My first view of the Army Hall gave the clue that it had been a dairy factory - the ventilators on the ridge of the roof. New Zealand has many examples of the remnants of old factories as they were not very far apart in the landscape due to transport of milk from farm to factory impeded by poor roads, if any, and the need to have the milk at the factory as quickly as possible for processing.

By the 1880s in the Tauranga district farming was being established and many of the well-known citizens like Lundon, Crump, Mathieson, Brabant and Tollemache began to speak up identifying the need for a factory. Eleventh Avenue, regarded as being on the fringe of the town, importantly had a fresh water. Dairy factories use water to wash the butter and need a reliable supply.

Tauranga Dairy Factory, 1918
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0324/10

In 1883 a meeting established the Tauranga Dairy Company and raised half the capital needed that night. There was a general preference to keep it local and refuse investment from out of the district. Eventually on 1 November 1885 the factory opened. They were not easy years ahead with problems like the difficulty in procuring young pigs to consume the whey, while some farmers wanted to keep the whey to feed the calves. Tauranga people were encouraged to buy the local butter but outsiders were trying to undercut the prices. Arguments arose when the Dairy Company proposed to open a store for their suppliers to purchase farm requirements and the town merchants complained that the Company wanted it both ways – to ask retailers to sell the butter but to undercut them with the sales of other supplies. The Dairy Company sales of bacon and ham remained an important part of the business. Those pigs needed to move on.

In the 1890s, a time of economic depression in New Zealand, the factory closed but reopened in 1900 under the management of Mr McPartland, the successful manager of the Te Puke Dairy Company. The Company paid three pence per gallon of milk to suppliers at this time. Exporting butter was more difficult than meat and it was not until the twentieth century that exporting increased. Britain’s need for food during the First World War created a huge market. A capable and energetic man Charles Macmillan had become the company secretary and saw the company through a period of growth. Macmillan became a Borough Councillor, later the Member of Parliament for the area, and Minister of Agriculture.

Dairy Factory, 1969. Photo by Renwood Studios
Image courtesy of Pae Koroki, Ref. 99-941

The butter factory prospered producing a quality product that won many prizes at shows around the country. In 1932 the meeting of the Tauranga Farmers’ Union revealed that £90,000 had been paid last season to suppliers and the bulk of it spent in Tauranga. In the twentieth century industrial action was a feature with a strong Dairy Factory Workers Union demanding better pay and conditions; the payment to farmers was low; and when things started to improve when War broke out again, there was a shortage of workers and the Dairy Company made representations to exempt some of their employees from War service. Photographs from 1969 show the factory still in business.

Army Hall, 2021. Photo by Shirley Arabin

The Tauranga Cooperative Dairy Company continued to operate from the Eleventh Avenue site through and after the Second World War but more research is required for those years until the building became the Battalion Headquarters of the Hauraki Regiment. This occurred in May 1981 with a move from the old Army Hall in Dive Crescent. The subject of a move had been debated since the 1970s when the City Council favoured demolition and building houses on the land. Bob Owens the Mayor favoured the Army so the new headquarters became known as the Hauraki Army Hall. The building includes a drill hall and the Hauraki Army Museum.

References
Bay of Plenty Times. Papers Past.
Taylor, Richard. Comrades Brave, A History of the Hauraki Regiment. Cosmos Publications, Napier 1998

Open for Business at Level Two

Museums and Art Galleries around the country are gradually re-opening as New Zealanders become more comfortable with the rules at Covid-19 Alert Level 2. Our local Arts, Culture and Heritage sector is no different and, now more than ever, it needs our support.  

Tauranga Art Gallery

Tiheru (Bailer), 3D printed PLA by Kereama Taepa. Photograph by Anne Shirley. Tauranga Art Gallery

The Tauranga Art Gallery is open with new hours - Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm.  The Gallery is currently showing the Miles Art Awards Exhibition, work by Kelcy Taratoa and Matatoki – Mata a Waka, which features contemporary works by internationally-recognised carvers alongside taonga tuturu (historical objects) from the Tauranga Heritage Collection.
https://www.artgallery.org.nz/

Western Bay Museum

The Western Bay Museum will open on June 2 (10am to 2pm) with free entry for the entire month, although donations will be greatly appreciated. Their wonderful Fashion and Photography Exhibition is well worth a visit and features some very special historical costumes.
https://www.facebook.com/WesternBayMuseum/

Classic Flyers

Classic Flyers is open and has resumed normal hours, 9am to 4pm, with the café open at 7am. The museum is undergoing a refresh so there will be new displays for visitors to enjoy. https://www.classicflyersnz.com/

The Incubator Creative Hub

This, Too, Will Pass. The Incubator Creative Hub

The Incubator Creative Hub at the Historic Village is ‘back in business’. This includes the Okorore – Nga Toi Maori Gallery & Studios and Satellite Studios. “This, Too, Will Pass”, an exhibition by Shakti Ethnic Women’s Support Group on at the People’s Gallery, is raising funds for supporting survivors of domestic violence.
https://www.facebook.com/theincubatortauranga/

The Elms

In consultation with their wonderful team of volunteers, The Elms is looking at how they can reopen their gates very soon.
https://www.theelms.org.nz/