Studio 5 –Bicultural framework and community development
The studio paper for stage three of the planning degree looks into working within a bicultural framework. For this semester, our studio class has been working alongside the Te Hana community just north of Auckland.
Firstly, in understanding this studio paper, the situation in Te Hana must be understood:
The Te Hana community is a Maori community located on State Highway One exactly half-way between Auckland and Whangarei. The community is organised and looked after by the Te Hana Charitable Trust who have recognised that there is a desperate need to address the current problems within the community. These problems include:
· High levels of crime and unemployment
· Poor housing conditions
· Low levels of education and qualifications
· High levels of vandalism as a result of complete lack of pride and well-being within the community
· Key infrastructure issues including no water and sewerage treatment during 2001-2002.
As a consequence, the Trust was set up and developed out of a response to address these core problems that were occurring within the community.
The key areas that the Trust wanted to address include the following:
· Restoring key infrastructure –in particular waste and sewerage
· Enhancing social development
· Restoring community pride and participation
· Preserving the environment and restoring for the purposes of catering to the needs of future generations
Therefore, in addressing and achieving these issues and goals, the Trust is responsible for funding and organising the Te Hana project. Outlined below is a brief description of the project:
The first part of the project involved the setting up of an education centre that provides educational courses to members of the community. Secondly, the main part of the project is the development of a cultural marae and tourist centre for the purpose of creating employment opportunities as well as restoring cultural pride within the community.
As part of our studio paper, our class went on a two-day trip up to Te Hana to visit the community and to attend a hui (meeting) in which we became familiar with the project itself and the trust who are involved with organising and developing the project. However, the underlying importance of the trip was to stay over the night at the marae and to familiarise ourselves with traditional Maori customs and cultural practices.
One of the key features of this studio paper is to understand the concept of community development and seeing how it relates to the Te Hana project. The concept of community development is defined by Hucker (2009) to mean the building of a stronger community through establishing the four well-beings which include social, economic, environmental and cultural which is exactly what the trust is working to achieve in the Te Hana community. This will be aimed to be achieved through familiarising the community and tourists to Maori customs and practices, and by establishing a strong sense of education and teaching skills to the community through large and small scale projects such as the tourist centre and community vegetable garden that will encourage community members to grow their own vegetables.
In terms of relating this to studio group work, the studio paper places a specific focus on community development in a culturally diverse society. As part of the project, the class has been divided into the following groups:
· River research
· Public toilet design
· Streetscape design
· Funding and marketing
My group is the river research group which is involved in investigating past, present and future uses of the river as well as investigating design techniques that could visually enhance the amenity of the space for public access as well as the feasibility of re-establishing a wharf that could potentially bring about economic benefits.
A specific theme to this paper is understanding the importance of community development in a culturally diverse society. One way of understanding this is the aim to achieve Maori self-determination. This is a concept that encourages the advancement of Maori people and the protection of the environment for future generations. This specifically relates to the Te Hana community in that the project is focused on restoring cultural identity and furthermore enhancing the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of the community.