Emotionally charged farewell for Whakarewa Children’s Home

The Whakarewa Children’s Home was farewelled in a heartfelt and emotional ceremony last month.

The expansive stucco property, set back from the road at the end of College St at the beginning of the Motueka Valley, is currently being deconstructed. The Whakarewa trustees made this decision because the building had become a health and safety risk and was no longer usable. The trustees say that they are looking forward to potential future opportunities for this site.

The residential home for orphans and children from adverse circumstances was home to many hundreds of children during its many decades of operation, before closing its doors in 1974.

Among those at the farewell ceremony on Wednesday, 12 June were former residents who shared vivid and overwhelmingly positive memories of the time they spent there. One woman called the home her “safe haven”, saying that not a week goes by when she isn’t grateful for her time there.

“I believe that this was the most stable place I had as a child, and I was here for six years.”

The focus of the speeches swung from gratitude that the orphanage had offered a place for disadvantaged children, to grief at the way the land had been withheld from its historical owners, even after it sat in disuse.

The building and land belong to the hapū entity of Motueka, Whakarewa Trust | Ngāti Rārua Atiawa Iwi Trust, who are tangata whenua to and original landowners in Motueka. The ownership has a contentious history.

One speaker said that the property had a stigma because of “how the land got taken from our old people”.

“It would be remiss of me not to think about the tupuna [ancestors] who were around at that time,” another said.

Records from the Nelson Race Collective state that in 1853, Ngāti Rārua elders were eventually persuaded by Governor George Grey to provide land to the Anglican Church for a school, “on [Bishop} Selwyn’s word that it would be returned, should the school cease to operate”. Grey appropriated further land to support the running of the school, which closed its doors for good in 1881.

The land was not returned at this time, despite a petition to parliament, and later, a Royal Commission. In 1888, the orphanage was established. Originally, it was for boys only, and in later years, girls too were permitted to seek refuge there, until the establishment closed in 1974.

For several years afterwards, the property was used as a home for intellectually disabled children by the Nelson Hospital Board. It has been largely disused since the late 1980s. It was not until 1993 that National MP Sir Doug Kidd sponsored a Private Members Bill that resulted in the return of the Whakarewa estate to the local iwi’s descendants.

Tumu Whakarae/chief executive Joanie Wilson says that the Whakarewa Trust is yet to make a final decision on what the future holds for this site.

“Whatever it will be, it will be to benefit the descendants of the original owners who whakapapa to Whakarewa, for today and beyond.”

The Guardian will be presenting the stories of some of the orphanage’s former residents in the coming weeks, to share their experiences as children who spent some of their formative years in Motueka’s Whakarewa Children’s Home.