Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Murupara school ready to decide fate of whare

Updated at 9:32 pm on 7 December 2012

A closed Bay of Plenty college says it will choose where to put a small carved whare on the school's site if local hapu don't decide soon.

Rangitahi College in Murupara closed its doors on Monday and will merge with Murupara Primary to become a new area school.

The principal of the college, Dawn Mitai-Pehi, told Te Manu Korihi in September that she hoped local sub-tribes would decide before December where to move the house, Tuwhare.

The whare, a small replica of a local ancestral house, still has not been made.

Mrs Mitai-Pehi says that has put pressure on her board of trustees, because they officially leave the school at the end of next week.

She says if the local hapu doesn't make a decision soon, her board will.

Mrs Mitai-Pehi says her board has decided that it wants to return Tuwhare to Rangitahi Marae - a location where the original Tuwhare house stood.

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