Carving detail of te waharoa at Waiwhetu Marae

Waiwhetū is an eastern suburb of

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. It is New Zealand's sixth most p ...

in the

Wellington Region Greater Wellington, also known as the Wellington Region (Māori: ''Te Upoko o te Ika''), is a non-unitary region of New Zealand that occupies the southernmost part of the North Island. The region covers an area of , and has a population of T ...

situated in the south of the

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 ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. In the 19th-century period of European settlement it was worked by Irish-born

Alfred Ludlam Alfred Ludlam (1810 – 8 November 1877) was a leading New Zealand politician, horticulturist and farmer who owned land at Wellington and in the Hutt Valley. A member of three of New Zealand's four earliest parliaments, he was also a philanthrop ...

, who was a member of three of New Zealand's four earliest parliaments. In the 1840s it was set aside by the

New Zealand Company The New Zealand Company, chartered in the United Kingdom, was a company that existed in the first half of the 19th century on a business model focused on the systematic colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principl ...

as a native reserve for the

Te Āti Awa Te Āti Awa is a Māori iwi with traditional bases in the Taranaki and Wellington regions of New Zealand. Approximately 17,000 people registered their affiliation to Te Āti Awa in 2001, with around 10,000 in Taranaki, 2,000 in Wellington and arou ...

tribe. In the 1930s the New Zealand government compulsorily acquired the land and built new homes for Te Āti Awa. The suburb includes Waiwhetū Marae, a ''

marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...

'' (tribal meeting-ground) of

Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o te Ika Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o te Ika is a Māori collective that was formed to lodge claims with the Waitangi Tribunal relating to the New Zealand Company's purchase of land in the vicinity of Wellington in 1839 and 1844. Following on from th ...

and of

. The marae, founded in 1960, includes the Arohanui ki te Tangata ''

wharenui A wharenui (; literally "large house") is a communal house of the Māori people of New Zealand, generally situated as the focal point of a ''marae''. Wharenui are usually called meeting houses in New Zealand English, or simply called ''whare'' ( ...

'' (meeting house). Waiwhetū Marae features a number of significant carvings and has associations with a number of notable Māori artists, including Rangi Hetet (who did much of the original carving for the marae), his wife

Erenora Puketapu-Hetet Erenora Puketapu-Hetet (née Puketapu, 28 January 1941 – 23 July 2006) was a noted New Zealand weaver and author. A key figure in the Māori cultural renaissance, she helped change perceptions of Māori weaving/raranga from craft to int ...

and their daughter Veranoa Hetet. The marae is associated with Ihaia Puketapu. Compare:

Demographics

Waiwhetū statistical area covers . It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Waiwhetū had a population of 4,305 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

, an increase of 342 people (8.6%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 354 people (9.0%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 1,590 households. There were 2,097 males and 2,208 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.95 males per female. The median age was 35.5 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 852 people (19.8%) aged under 15 years, 906 (21.0%) aged 15 to 29, 2,025 (47.0%) aged 30 to 64, and 519 (12.1%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 58.7% European/Pākehā, 20.4% Māori, 9.7% Pacific peoples, 21.7% Asian, and 4.2% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The proportion of people born overseas was 29.8%, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 44.0% had no religion, 37.0% were Christian, 6.6% were Hindu, 2.3% were Muslim, 1.3% were Buddhist and 3.4% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 945 (27.4%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 546 (15.8%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $33,600, compared with $31,800 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 1,779 (51.5%) people were employed full-time, 504 (14.6%) were part-time, and 198 (5.7%) were unemployed.

Education

Our Lady of Rosary School is a co-educational state-integrated Catholic primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of as of .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waiwhetu Suburbs of Lower Hutt