Parihaka is set to receive $5.8 million from the government to improve water infrastructure.
The upgrades to the Taranaki community are set to start immediately, with a total price tag of $7.3m - the remaining $1.5m will be fronted by the Parihaka Papakāinga Trust.
Announced by Regional Development Minister Shane Jones as Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka, the grant comes from the Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF), the coalition government’s new and revised version of the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF).
The money will go to a modern wastewater system that will collect, treat, and disperse wastewater from existing and future homes. with the removal of old septic tanks to free up more land for future papakāinga housing.
Parihaka papakāinga, a village on ancestral Māori land, is home to three marae and around 30 dwellings.
The government predicts up to another 100 homes could be built on the newly freed-up land.
The new system will also reduce the risk of contamination of waterways during floods.
Potaka said the infrastructure investment with Parihaka Papakāinga Trust is significant to all Kiwis.
“Parihaka was established by the prophets Tohu Kākahi and Te Whiti o Rongomai as a place of peace and shelter during the New Zealand Land Wars.
“Led by Tohu Kākahi and Te Whiti-o-Rongomai, the people used peaceful opposition to challenge the validity of land thefts and forced sales by the settler government, as well as to a violent occupation by Crown troops in 1881.
“Parihaka has become known for its residents’ actions of passive resistance to land theft by the Crown, and their peaceful response.
“The Parihaka community continue to follow the peaceful teachings of Tohu Kākahi and Te Whiti o Rongomai and there is a collective effort to ensure an enduring resilience – spiritual, physical, cultural and economic – for the community.
“The Crown’s Accord with Parihaka states our commitment to supporting the trust’s development plan,” Potaka wrote in a statement.
Jones said it qualifies under the RIF due to the rural water assets being community-owned and not on the local authority’s water network.
“Due to its Māori land classification, the site is non-rated and therefore doesn’t receive infrastructure investment and services provided elsewhere by local government.
“This coalition government is focused on accelerating infrastructure projects, particularly in communities that cannot access funding through other means.
“While an ambitious visitors’ centre was originally planned for the grant funding, escalating costs and the urgent need to install basic infrastructure at Parihaka took precedence,” wrote Jones.
This work will see the utilisation of Taranaki’s new Māori trade consortium Ngā Waka Whiria. It aims to allow smaller businesses to work on large construction contracts. The Parihaka project is the first opportunity to work with this new consortium.