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Te Ahu dream now set to soar - TUESDAY JULY 6, 2010

Kaitaia's once beleaguered Te Ahu project appears to have cleared its final hurdles, with two break throughs in as many days.
The first came on Wednesday, when the trust behind the multi-purpose complex learned it was $500,000 closer to its funding target thanks to a Lottery Community Facilities grant. And on Thursday the Far North District Council gave its blessing to leasing a piece of adjoining land from Te Runanga o Te Rarawa.
Also on Thursday, the runanga revealed it was planning to invest the money from the lease straight back into Te Ahu, making it a paying partner in the project. That would remove one of the last serious objections to the project, which was the $1,020 a month, or more than $300,000 over the 25-year lease, that was to have been paid to Te Rarawa.
With those last hurdles cleared, Te Ahu Charitable Trust general manager Mark Osborne said construction would start this month. Resource and building consents were already in the bag, and he expected contractual arrangements to be finalised on Friday last week.
The first task would be driving 90 piles 12 metres into the ground.
Te Runanga o Te Rarawa chairman Haami Piripi was quick to correct Mayor Wayne Brown when he thanked the runanga for its donation last week.
"It's not a donation, it's an investment. We want to contribute not just in cultural terms but also financially," he said.
Mr Piripi also hinted that that was unlikely to be the end of the runanga's investment in Te Ahu. The iwi was one of five about to finalise a $220 million Treaty of Waitangi settlement, which meant opportunities for growing Te Ahu in the future.
"If this is a marriage between us, we see the land as the ring that binds us together," he said.
The iwi was keen to express its identity through Te Ahu, but also saw the museum and library as means of improving literacy and numeracy among its young people, Mr Piripi acknowledging that the project had seen a lot of controversy, but suggesting that opposition was fading.

NEW BENCHMARK
Meanwhile Mr Piripi has described the relationship that is forming between Te Rarawa and the Far North District Council as setting a new benchmark for New Zealand.
As well as the Te Ahu partnership, the council and runanga have agreed on a set of principles governing how each deals with the other, while future areas of co-operation could include tapping into the Sweetwater aquifer, which the council hopes will provide a secure source of potable water for Kaitaia.
Mr Brown said the council was hoping to develop more relationships with iwi, and "well-organised, willing Te Rarawa" was a good place to start.
"If the Waikato is any guide they will become a force to be noticed in the district," he said.
Mr Piripi said his runanga wanted to be a partner to simply a neighbour, hence its willingness to work with the council under the Te Ahu mantle. The relationship, he said, could set a new benchmark for New Zealand.
And while engaging with the other Te Hiku iwi would not be simple, he was confident that it would happen.
"Kaitaia's a funny sort of community," he said.
"You almost can't tell the difference between Maori and Pakeha. They've been working together for so long that their values and beliefs are almost indistinguishable."