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Suffering from perinatal depression and postnatal psychosis after the birth of her fourth child, Eli Maiava felt scared to be at home alone with her baby.
“I would walk down the road to this community space and knew there would be these women there, and they would hold my baby, and I would get to sit and have a cup of tea for half an hour and just enjoy that safety of it.”
Read this story in te reo Māori and English here / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.
That was when Maiava (Waitaha, Ngāti Mamoe, Poutini Ngāi Tahu) lived in Wellington, where she had the option of going to five local marae and community spaces where people gathered to connect with their culture.
So when she moved to Greymouth, on the South Island’s West Coast, and found no kaupapa Māori space, she decided to create one.
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Joanne Naish/Stuff
Eli Maiava set up Whare Manaaki o te Tai Poutini after moving to Greymouth and finding no Māori community space.
Whare Manaaki o te Tai Poutini, which she opened in January 2021, has been so successful it now employs 10 people and is expanding its community garden into the section next door.
With a background in early childhood teaching, Maiava secured funding from Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu for a parenting programme.
But when Covid hit, the needs of the community changed.
She spoke to Māori whānau across the West Coast and found they were struggling and needed a place to gather.
Joanne Naish/Stuff
Whare Manaaki o te Tai Poutini is a kaupapa Māori organisation on the West Coast supporting whānau and parents.
She approached Mawhera Inc, which owns land in Greymouth, and was given a building on Tainui St rent free.
It is a space for the community, offering dinners, a garden, food parcels, drop-in sessions for rangatahi, playgroups, after-school care, and workshops in te reo Māori, health and wellness, parenting, traditional Māori art and instruments, and Māori healing.
“You don’t have to be Māori to be here, but you have to be comfortable with the fact that what we do, we do in a Māori way. It’s kaupapa Māori for the entire community.”
The whare works on reciprocity, which Maiava has found difficult to articulate – the words free or koha do not quite fit, she says.
Joanne Naish/Stuff
Whare Manaaki o te Tai Poutini has a large community garden that is expanding onto a neighbouring section.
“We work hard to access funding to make sure there are no barriers in what we can offer, but the money is only finite, it gets things started, but it won’t be what allows it to carry on.
“Our only tikanga here is respect. Respect for ourselves, others and our shared space.”
It’s also a place for new mothers to find support.
Joanne Naish/Stuff
Trish Anderson works at Whare Manaaki o te Tai Poutini while studying social work and te reo Māori.
Trish Anderson (Te Arawa) moved to Greymouth six years ago from Palmerston North for a fresh start away from drugs, addiction and crime.
“When I moved here with my husband, I literally picked him up from jail and moved here because we were just stuck in this cycle for about 10 years. I just wanted a change.”
She struggled to fit into the community until she found Whare Manaaki.
“I had never really felt brown until I moved to Greymouth. When I saw this place advertised last year I came down and just loved it. I started coming all the time.”
Joanne Naish/Stuff
Missy Campbell helps mums by holding their babies, giving them a break, at Whare Manaaki o te Tai Poutini.
After a few months of helping with the whare’s koha room, she became a full-time employee and is now kaiwhakahaere/manager.
“A few months after I started working here my husband passed away and without this whānau I don’t know if I would have got through it as well as I did.
“I found out I was pregnant after he passed away, so our team were there when I had baby.”
Whare Manaaki has helped her connect with her whakapapa, culture and language, and helped her gain confidence. She is employed through the Ministry of Social Development’s mana in mahi programme, which includes a requirement to study, and is now enrolled in social work and te reo online classes.
“I’ve been able to learn so much. I feel so blessed, but there is also sadness that I’m 36 now and I’m only just learning it. If I’d learned this when I was a young girl the whole course of my life could have been different.”
Maiava’s next goals are to have a Māori immersion education centre for children/kura kaupapa, kohanga reo and a space to hold tūpāpaku/bodies for tangi so whānau can grieve together.
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