Kawa Maraeby Rhanae History
In 1934 Te Nupere Ngawaka gave some of his land in Kawa to the education board to educate nga tamariki. His brother Mahau shifted two buildings onto the site at Kawa.
The building used for the school is still there today but has been renovated originally for the purpose of a wharetupuna.
Years later in the 1970’s when the building was no longer used as a school, iwi applied to the education board for the return of their land, they also applied to the maori land court to have this land set aside as a maori reservation for the purpose of a marae. 


Facts


The marae was administrated or looked after by an incorporation which eventually dissolved and a trust formed, now called Ngatiwai o Aotea Kawa Marae Trust.
The new trustees of 2002-2007 after a meeting with the whanau, decided to erect carvings in the building.
Due to the formation of the roof which involved the kitchen & dining room it was not tika that the roves eves included this area. It was then decided to build a wharetupuna and use the original school building as a wharekai.
The trust got funding from many organisations but mostly ASB Trust and Lotteries Marae Heritage.
The wharetupuna will be built to lockup stage but unfortunately due to not enough money will not be completed this year unless more money has been found (got). Funding from ASB will support the renovations on the wharekai building.
It is not expected that this will be completed this year either as the trust need to apply for more money to fund these projects in stages.

Kauri Logs
On the 12 of May Kawa Marae Trust and Department of Conservation staff pulled out some logs from the bush so we can have beautiful carvings at the Marae.
First Dad had to order the chopper so that it could come out and pick the logs out off Hirakimata. The chopper came from Auckland looking like a flying ant.
After that the extraction team pulled the logs out. They dropped them at Nana’s old house site at Rarohara Bay at Port Fitzroy
When they were finished a few weeks later Te Warihi Hetaraka (Ngatiwai tohunga) came over and most of the extraction team had a meeting. Up by the logs they discussed what they were going to do with them.
Te Warihi Hetaraka is leading the whakakakahutanga project and some locals may be able to take part in some of these events.