Welcome to the website of Whanau Maria Marae.

“Whanau is whanau. It is all about those who trace back to Oka. Yes Katarina and Toia, but mainly Toia. It was Pa’s dream” Anne Murray, April 2016.

It is all in the name. Whanau highlights the importance of being able to welcome all our whanau to our place at Okahukura and Maria the importance of Mary, the Mother of God.

The catholic faith was important to our old people here and when Pa Wiremu, our nation’s first Maori catholic priest, retired he wanted to come back home to Okahukura. His brothers and sisters made it happen, reclaiming part of their old farm which had been lost to them in hard times back in the 1920s. Pa’s dream started to became a reality in July 1987 when the family negotiated the first small piece of wahi tapu land around the Niu Pole and later the rest of the land and buildings. In May 1991 they arrived from Auckland to transform the house and garage buildings into what they are today, Whanau Maria Marae with Opotiki at the entrance way and Katarina-Toia the meeting house.