Kia ora, Ko Chris Bailey ahau, and I am the Chairperson of our Community-Led Design Group.
It is my great pleasure to speak on behalf of the group today as we celebrate the formal opening of Te Rimutahi.
Te Rimutahi has been a project many, many years in the making.
Over that time, funding has been tight, as it is now, which is why Te Rimutahi ended up being a Community-Led Design project. It was to trial this different approach, as it couldn’t be done the way Council would ordinarily progress such a project. With no funding to create a design and therefore, with no design, the Council was unable to move forward: a chicken-and-egg situation.
Our CLD process included residents, local businesses, and visitors. The number of weekends we stood on the corner and gave out leaflets asking for feedback, well… we lost count! But we believe it produced a better result. By understanding the needs of our community and involving them at every step along the way, through consultation after consultation, the project team had a mandate that was bespoke, accurate & place-centred.
BRAVO!
There are too many people to thank by name, but we do want to acknowledge those of our team who died before the completion of TE Rimutahi.
Gerry Hill, past Chair of the Western Bays Community Group, was a foundational supporter of this project.
Our Community Led Design Group members:
Andy Smith, a representative of Walk Auckland and our IT specialist for all the consultations we undertook,
and
Bryan Bates, our stormwater technical specialist who kept our focus on wider sustainability outcomes for the site.
We are saddened they didn’t get to see Te Rimutahi, but we are thankful for the considerable support they provided us along the way.
We would like to thank;
- The many iterations of the Waitematā Local Board, which initially established the Community-Led-Design initiative. Then, through the long years of our volunteer advocacy, supported our work via two grants that enabled us to communicate with our community.
- We would also like to thank Auckland Council, which acknowledged and accepted the aspirations of our community and unanimously voted to retain the whole site for the new civic space, which is now Te Rimutahi.
- Mana whenua, for their significant contribution to the realisation and enrichment of this project, including the gifting of the beautiful name Te Rimutahi.
And our final thanks are to EVERYONE who has been involved in our Community-Led-Design process over the years. Be it through submitting, attending an exhibition and/or an event, or simply staying up-to-date via the website, our Facebook pages, or through the Ponsonby News updates. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Over the years, our Community-Led-Design Group has learnt a few critical lessons that we think are worth sharing with anyone who might like to use a similar model for other community development projects.
- Allow time for true engagement. Once is not enough, nor is twice. We canvassed the community and kept them updated with our feedback along the way. We called this “breathing in, and breathing out” and just like with actual breathing, it’s essential to maintain!
- Be comfortable with people holding alternate points of view and work with them. We had such groups during the project. Include their views in the process, but accept that you can’t please all of the people, all of the time.
- Stay principled. Don’t be tempted to take shortcuts or push an outcome that consultation didn’t support. Test your conclusions and provide all data to Council decision-makers, so they can trust what you say.
- And most importantly, assemble a team of people who share your vision. This will enable tagging in & tagging out, whilst still keeping the project moving forward. When someone is tired, or swamped with the stuff life throws at all of us, a team keeps the course and maintains the determination needed to succeed.
So, once again, to everyone involved, THANK YOU.
Just look at what we have achieved!
Arohanui.
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