Kutarere is a community in the

Ōpōtiki District Ōpōtiki District is a territorial authority district in the North Island of New Zealand. The Ōpōtiki District Council is headquartered in the largest town, Ōpōtiki. The district falls within the Bay of Plenty region. Lyn Riesterer has be ...

and

Bay of Plenty Region The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway ...

of New Zealand's

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

, on the coast of the Ohiwa Harbour. The local Ōhiwa Harbour is known as the "daughter of Te Whakatōhea" because it supplied the iwi with fish and shellfish. It is also known as "the food basket of the peoples", because of the food

Ngāi Tūhoe Ngāi Tūhoe (), often known simply as Tūhoe, is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. It takes its name from an ancestral figure, Tūhoe-pōtiki. ''Tūhoe'' is a Māori-language word meaning "steep" or "high noon". Tūhoe people also bear the sobriquet ...

and

Ngāti Awa Ngāti Awa is a Māori iwi (tribe) centred in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand. It is made of 22 hapū (subtribes), with 15,258 people claiming affiliation to the iwi in 2006. The Ngāti Awa people are primarily located in towns ...

were able to gather from the area. Following the European settlement of the

Ōpōtiki Ōpōtiki (; from ''Ōpōtiki-Mai-Tawhiti'') is a small town in the eastern Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. It houses the headquarters of the Ōpōtiki District Council and comes under the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Ge ...

township, Kutarere became a port for incoming goods until October 1959. A photograph of Kutarere by

Brian Brake John Brian Brake (27 June 1927 – 4 August 1988) was a photographer from New Zealand. Biography Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Brake was the adopted son of John Samuel Brake and his wife Jennie Brake (née Chiplin). He was raised initially at ...

, taken in the 1980s, is held in the collections in

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

History and culture

Burial controversy

In 2007, Tuhoe man James Takamore was buried at the Kutarere cemetery. It sparked a lengthy legal and protest dispute between his partner and immediate family, who wanted him buried in Christchurch, and his wider family and Kutarere elders, who wanted him to remain buried at Kutarere. In 2011, courts found the wider family had acted illegally in taking the body without the wife's permission. Attempts to disintern the body in 2014 were blocked by protesters. The two parties reached a confidential resolution through mediation in 2015. The case sparked a wider legal and ethical debate about New Zealand's burial laws.

Recent history

One person was burnt during a house fire in Kutarere in August 2016. The town was isolated by flooding and slips, which closed State Highway through the Waimana Gorge, south of the settlement, in April 2017 and July 2018. A tornado went through the area in August 2018. In May 2019, Ministry for Primary Industries fisheries agents found two men taking far in excess of their legal allowance of pipi. About a quarter of the pipi were too small to eat. Josie Mortensen, a trustee of the local marae, received a Queen's Service Medal in the

2019 Queen's Birthday Honours The 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as ...

, for services to Māori and the arts. During the 2020 coronavirus lockdown, a sign was erected at the settlement warning people not to stop.

Marae

Kutarere Marae and Te Poho o Tamaterangi meeting house is a gathering place for the Tūhoe hapū of Tūranga Pikitoi and the

Whakatōhea Whakatōhea is a Māori people, Māori iwi located in the eastern Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the area around the town of Ōpōtiki. The traditional territorial lands extend eastwards from Ohiwa Har ...

hapū of

Te Ūpokorehe Te Ūpokorehe is a Māori tribal group located in the eastern Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand. There is currently a dispute over whether it is a hapū (sub-tribe) of Whakatōhea or an iwi (tribe) in its own right. The rohe (tribal area) o ...

. In October 2020, the Government committed $1,646,820 from the Provincial Growth Fund to upgrade the marae and 5 other local marae, creating 10 jobs. Roimata Marae and Te Ao Marama meeting house is a meeting place for the

hapū of

Education

Kutarere School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of as of . The Government stepped into the running of the school in 2013, appointing a special adviser from February to November.

References

{{Ōpōtiki District Ōpōtiki District Populated places in the Bay of Plenty Region