Wairoa hīkoi follows path of floodwaters to mark Cyclone Gabrielle anniversary

A taonga created from parts of homes devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle has been gifted to Wairoa District Council after an early morning hīkoi though the town.

The three pou of the taonga represent whānau, whenua, wairua and Wairoa.

The hīkoi took place through Wairoa Wednesday morning to commemorate all that was lost when Cyclone Gabrielle sent floodwaters rushed through the town a year ago.

Before the sun rose, a karakia rang out over the showgrounds to mark the beginning of its Cyclone Gabrielle commemoration service.

The theme for today's commemoration is hinatore - the community working together towards the dawn of a new day.

Hundreds of whānau are still displaced, their homes still in ruins.

But today they reflect on their journey so far, and the way they've held each other up through some of their darkest days.

The hīkoi followed the path the floodwaters took through town, with affected whānau joining along the way, before it reached Memorial Park.

There more than a hundred residents shared kai and reflected on the past year.

Iehu Taylor says it's good to see so many people out in the town. "I'm here to pay my respects. Because what happened was a tragedy."

Wairoa teenager Amber Cook said it was great to see the town come together in a show of support after what they had experienced over the last year.

The 14-year-old said it was important for her to do so after such a tough year.

"Hectic, absolutely hectic, that's the word that you would use to put everything together in my opinion, but you know, good town, good support. Everyone came together, it was actually cool seeing the whole town come into one and just go around helping everyone else that got affected."

While her home didn't receive any damage, she said she took part in the town's clean-up efforts with her school, Wairoa College.

Artist Tamatamarangi Clausen collected debris and shaped part of a wall, floorboards and a rusted can into a waka.

It represents moving forward in unison, while a whare commemorates the damage done to people's homes, he said. "I felt it was my job to collate material and put it together. The black represents lives lost not only human life, but animals too."

He said the community had come together, on a day like the one last year when the storm and flooding came.

"It's unreal. The sun actually rose as it did today and we thought everything had passed, until water started flowing directly into our houses. My house was affected, my work studio was affected, my whanau was affected."

It was hard to navigate help and insurance. "Some people haven't had help to date and it's one year on, so it's pretty hard. I think the devastation is not only going to affect one generation, it'll probably affect the next two - we were struggling enough without a flood, let alone getting flooded out."

Wairoa's mayor said he would never stop fighting for his community.

"We should be feeling a lot more happy than we are, but we've got a lot of work to still be done."

Hundreds were still displaced, and people could not afford to repair their homes, he said.

"So, not a lot to celebrate at the moment."

However, he was heartened by the strength of his community through the last year.

"It's a community that's certainly together, and we've been like that from day one, we've been like that forever.

"It's events like that that really bring us together, we care about each other, but we just can't do it ourselves. We need help."

About $6 million was needed to help whānau repair their homes, and another $200 million to fix up local roads.

Māori warden Dawn Wairama, from Manawatū, who spent 10 months in Wairoa, said the community has been incredible.

"They are really amazing people. The way that they stood themselves up and looked after each other, they're amazing."

Darren Hill has a workshop in town and they used their tractors to rescue people.

He said the hīkoi along the path the floodwaters took through town enabled them to see where they went that night.

"Just to walk with all these people that took a beating, and sort of feel the places that we've travelled to, and places where we actually rescued people from, I just had to come.

"It was bigger than what we thought it was going to be, you know we thought bit like Cyclone Bola - a handful of people, pick them up, take them somewhere dry - but this turned into an epic."

Val Irwin told RNZ the storm had brought the community together.

"We gained the unity back again that nobody could take away from us.

"Covid made us go really introverted and apart from everybody else, Gabrielle brought us all together."

An emotional Irwin said the cyclone hit Wairoa hard and today's commemorations were about remembering.