Te Whare Hangahanga and the art of Voluntold

WARNING LONG POST: But asking for your help e te whānau, e hoa mā

TLDR (Too Long, Didn't Read): Please help us in our social enterprise Te Whare Hangahanga where we will create healthy and affordable homes for our whānau and community. It is a minimum of $100 investment here and you own a part of our organisation. Also if you could be as kind as to share our kaupapa to help spread the word.

https://pledgeme.co.nz/investments/581-te-whare-hangahanga

Full story here:

Te Whare Hangahanga is a kaupapa that we started with Auntie Teresa Aporo back in July 2021. She had voluntold me that I needed to start looking at a new kaupapa. “You need to house our people” she said so simply. After a lot of protesting on my part, she dismissed it and said I’d work it out.

Well typical Amber style, we couldn't let it go once the seed was planted. This is where Te Whare Hangahanga has been born from, with the kaupapa being gifted the name from our kaumātua.

We've done a lot of research into how we use to build whare (pre 1840). Have had a lot of discussions with our whānau who rebuilt the Mākōtukutuku wharepuni (that currently sits in Te Papa). We then looked at technology that was available and what could enable us to build, without impacting our kaupapa. We prototyped lots and showed these to our whānau and kaumātua along the way. We crowd funded for a CNC Router (a computer controlled drill bit that cuts plywood). This allows us to digitally manufacture and fabricate our housing.

Did you know that our construction industry contributes massively to waste and emmissions, worsening climate change. Did you know that over 1.4 million New Zealanders live in rental homes, including more than 120,000 children - with Rentals more likely to be cold, damp and unhealthy. Did you know that Pacific peoples and Māori are less likely to own our whare, and report higher levels of housing unaffordability. Did you know that our waste water solutions cannot handle the waste we're producing.

We need a better way.

With this in mind we have led mahi in collaboration with Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka ( Miki Tiltman & Dr Antony Pelosi ) and XFrame ( Ged Finch ) on a kaupapa which has designed a 30sqm whare. Miki has picked this up and is completing her Masters research on our kaupapa. We have ensured that Papatūānuku, our whānau and community remain at the centre of our whare. We have started from the beginning and everything we do keeps that in mind. (Pictures of the concepts attached).

These whare incorporate:

• Passive House Principles
• require minimum energy to heat
• are off grid (including waste)
• are able to be self built by our own communities (with only a few aspects needing specialised skills)
• that we utilise Circular Economy principles
• that these whare are zero waste.
• that they have the least amount of impact on our whenua.
• are inclusive design (as Māori directly or indirectly experience disability at a higher rate, with most housing not being inclusive design, this forces us out of our homes).
• plus a whole bunch more that I can as simply say aligns more with te ao Māori and our relationship with taiao.

Why am I telling you this? We want to go further. We want to offer this whare and papakāinga/community builds to our people, to the people who need it the most in Aotearoa. We want to extend out our whare options (wharekai and 60sqm whare options).

Te Whare Hangahanga has launched a crowdfunding equity campaign. What does this mean? For as low as $100 you can own a piece of the organisation Te Whare Hangahanga. It is both exciting and terrifying all at once. We are trying to raise $100,000 all up. This will help ensure we can keep running and keep moving forward.

Our future goals are to:

• Building out a Pūtahi Taupuhipuhi Network (bit like a franchise) that ensures other regions can utilise these systems to build out their own whare, papakāinga and communities with support from our tuakana team.
• Build out a library of whare that are pre-designed and whānau can work with us to print out and self build.
• Creation of a Mātauranga Māori Research hub.
• Investigating new financial models that allow whānau to have housing security while not engaging with banks (who let's be honest most hate us).
• Building furniture that are space saving or utilise space much better (i.e. pull out drawers for cupboards so you can utilise the full space without needing to pull everything out of the cupboard every time).

If you would love to be part of this journey - let us know. If you're able to spare $100, please consider buying shares in our Social Enterprise. We are doing this for the love of our whānau, hapū and communities because housing is a HUMAN RIGHT.

A few commonly asked questions are:

• It is easier to pledge your investment if you're in NZ. A lot of countries do not allow you to invest in NZ Organisations.
• You need a NZ passport or a NZ drivers license to invest.
• If you're in NZ and have neither or these but want to invest - let us know.
• If you cannot pledge online, I have paper forms and I can come see you just let me know.

We are also collaborating with Whare Hauora who bring a wealth of knowledge into this kaupapa with Hiria Te Rangi . Whare Hauora has been working on the cold, damp housing kaupapa for well over a decade.

Also we would appreciate if you could share our kaupapa so that others can see it and help to fund us. It is through our community we have gotten to this point and it is through our community we will continue this important kaupapa.

Any queries message me.

Link to pledge: https://pledgeme.co.nz/investments/581-te-whare-hangahanga

Link to our website: tewharehangahanga.nz