The Urban Migration.

Contrary to popular belief, the urban migration of the Maori since the post-war years has not led to the assimilation of the Maori by the dominant Pakeha. The migration of the Maori over the last twenty-five years to the cities in search of what Joan Metge has called the "big three" factors or work; money and pleasure has proceeded at such a rate that 50% of the Maori people are now to be found living in towns and cities.

Because the urban migration was so massive, the Maori ensured social continuity in his life-style and indeed the successful transplantation of his culture into the urban milieu Social and cultural continuity was established by the build up in density of Maori people in particular areas of the city of Auckland, such as Freeman's Bay, Ponsonby and in more recent times Otara, Mangere and Te Atatu. Where the Pakeha feared the development of ghetto suburbs and tried to prevent them by the pepper-potting policy, the Maori quietly went about the business of rebuilding his sense of community.

Where adjustments had to be made to the demands of city, life, provision had also to be made for cultural and social needs. The same processes of birth, death and marriage go on in the city as in the country and the same solutions are offered with situational modifications to the city environment. In the case of a tangi the lack of marae in the city has not proved an obstacle to farewelling the dead in customary fashion. State houses have been turned into "little marae" for the occasion by clearing a room of furniture where the corpse is attended by the chief mourners and farewelled by visiting kin. Customary hospitality is usually provided by temporary outdoor cooking facilities In this way, city kinsmen have been able to wail for their dead before the body is returned to the home marae. There are however several difficulties in using a house in a suburban area for a tangi. Overcrowding from the point of view of the local authority raises the question of a health problem. From the Maori point of view some of the dignity of the tangi is lost by not holding it on the marae. The wailing has to be subdued out of deference to neighbours, and death is not adequately compensated for without a free flow of tears and mucus.

Some families with sufficient kin in the city form themselves into family clubs or bereavement societies. Officers are appointed and monthly levies are collected to provide a pool of capital to defray funerary expenses and to take the deceased back to the home marae. Some heads of family groups have erected on their properties double-sized fully-enclosed garages which they turn to use as a "little marae" for such functions as a tangi, a birthday party or a farewell.

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Larger descent groups of tribal and sub-tribal affiliation have succeeded in providing community facilities on a larger scale than those of family groups. Two that come to mina in Auckland are the Mahurehure group and the Tuhoe Benevolent Society.

The Mahurehure community centre [unclear: corisists] of a general purpose hall with associated cooking and toilet facilities. Finance was raised by levying tribal members who with their spouses are the ones who have turangawaewae or rights in the centre. Although marae activities such asTangihanga, huihuianga fund-raising, church services and club activities have been held there, the Mahurehure centre is strictly speaking not a marae. The land on which the centre stands has not been declared a Maori reserve, nor is there a traditional meeting house and marae where generations of ancestors have stood to deliver their orations. Yet despite the absence of these traditional criteria, ideologically the centre is regarded and spoken of as a marae because it serves as a focal point for the community sentiment of the urban Maori. Above all, the centre meets the social and cultural needs of the Maori in a way that cannot be met by equivalent Pakeha institutions.

The Tuhoe Benevolent Society is an organisation similar to that of the Mahurehure. It rents office space, cooking facilities and a small communal area in the inner city of Auckland. However, because of the location of the Tuhoe centre it has not been used for tangihangi.

In the western districts of Henderson - Te Atatu the large number of Maoris living in this area has led to the desire to establish a marae. Since the inhabitants of the district come from different tribes the committee elected for the purpose of raising funds for their project known as the John Waititi Memorial Marae is multi-tribal. This group represents an important departure from tradition since a marae is traditionally owned and operated by a kin group.

To the south of Auckland, the people of Otara attempted to go one step further than the western districts by calling their project a multi-racial marae. Since a marae is a Maori institution a multi-racial marae is a contradiction in terms.

A marae can only be Maori and not multi-racial. All the planning with reference to the marae, the meeting house, the symbolism The disposition of the buildings in accordance with the basic dichtomy between the sacred and the profane have to be based in Maori culture. This does not mean to say that the marae is a separatist institution. The Pakeha has always been granted inclusion in the marae on Maori terms. Eventually the people of Otara abandoned the concept of a multi-racial community facility because of the lack of support from the Maori people. Instead a new committee formed to see the project through have gone back to the concept of a Maori marae. A start has been made by putting a prefabricated building on the marae site given to the Maori people by the Manukau City Council.

The only truly traditional marae in Auckland i.e. with a kinship group at its base in at Mangere. Here seven acres of Maori land was set aside from confiscation by the government and was held by a Waikato family. After the Surplus Land Commission had returned 4000 pounds to King Koroki, the King donated this money at the bequest of the Maori community of Auckland to start the building fund for the marae. The Maori committees from One hunga, Mangere, Ihumatao, together with the Waitemate Executive spearhead the fund-raising activities Carvings were donated by another group that was going to build a marae at Grey Lynn, in fact the meeting house had to be redesigned to fit the carvings commissioned to complete the job Although the Maori community of Auckland raised the money and all Maoris are fully entitled to use the marae it is tacitly regarded by all as a Waikato marae. The three trustees are the Maori Queen and two members of the family that held the land rights to the marae. The marae is named after Princess Te Puea and is built on Waikato ground. The tangata whakamahana (people who keep the marae warm) who are in permanent residence are the land owning family.

Orakei, the other marae partly resembles the traditional model in that the dominant people who live adjacent to the site are Ngaati Whaatua, the tangata whenua of Auckland. The Maori community at Orakei has put on the site of the marae, two temporary prefabricated buildings which they use as a play centre, cultural centre and committee rooms. Eventually it is hoped to erect a full marae complex on the site for the use of all the Maori people of Auckland.

A functioning alternative to the traditional style of marae is the Maori Catholic Community Centre of Te Unga Waka. The Auckland Maori Catholic Society although sectarian in the sense that its members are derived from the Roman Catholic Church, is catholic in the sense that its members come from all tribes. The Auckland Maori Catholic Society supported by the Maori Mission and all sections of the Maori community in Auckland, began the project which was opened in 1965, the same year that the marae was opened Te Unga Waka, although spoken of as a marae is not so in the true sense of the word. It has no open space ground that serves as the marae proper, no meeting house and no particular kin group attached to it. Allhough the usual marae activities including tangi have been held there, Te Unga Waka strictly speaking is a community centre rather than a marae. Te Unga Waka does on the other hand serve as an alternative model to the traditional marae based on a kinship group. In place of the kinship principle there is religious affiliation that transcends tribal boundaries. The only drawback to this kind of organisation is that despite protestations to the contrary, outsiders regard it as sectarian. The success of Te Unga Waka as a solution to the social and cultural needs of urban Maoris is attested to by the fact that the Maori Catholic Societies of Otara and Otahuhu are ready to build their own centre in the spring.