Tūtehuarewa Hall
Tūtehuarewa Hall
The establishment of the marae at Koukourarata and the building of its hall were the work of both Māori and Pākeha members of the local community. The yachting fraternity held regattas at Easter and New Year and a local Māori Concert Party gave many acclaimed performances in Christchurch and Lyttelton to raise funds for the new hall. The hall was built in 1924/1925 and named Tūtehuarewa after an ancestress. It is rare for a woman’s name to be bestowed upon a whare tipuna as this is customarily a male privilege (female ancestors are traditionally honoured in the naming of whare kai). Eighty years later, the people of Koukourarata continued their tradition of ‘erring from tradition’ when the time came to name their new whare kai.
