Ousted: Tongan community group homeless
Ousted: Tongan community group homeless
The Kalapu Maile Ua Charitable Trust is frustrated the Invercargill City Council has ended its tenancy despite the group yet to find a new place to go.
A Tongan community group is homeless as it makes way for Invercargill’s new museum build.
And its members are disappointed their landlord - the Invercargill City Council - has moved them out while they are still searching for a new place to go.
The Kalapu Maile Ua Charitable Trust was based at the old Queens Park Tennis Club pavilion, adjacent to the pyramid museum building in Invercargill.
The Tongan community group would gather at the pavilion to sing, feast, drink kava, and simply catch up.
They also established their own tennis and pickleball clubs and got funding to purchase a table tennis table - amongst other activities.
Trust representatives said they were advised in September by the Invercargill City Council - which owns the pavilion - that they would need to move.
Council infrastructure group manager Erin Moogan said the lease expired in December 2022, however, subsequent renewals were granted until November 2023 and then again until January 2024 to accommodate the trust in vacating the premises.
The group packed up its belongings over the weekend and has now vacated the building.
The new museum build will be larger than the existing pyramid building which means it will extend to where the tennis court and pavilion area is.
The Trust’s members back the museum build, because of the impact it will have on the wider community. They also understood they needed to find a new home.
However, they are frustrated they were moved out when they haven’t yet found somewhere else to shift to. They believed the museum construction at the tennis court and pavilion site was still some time away from starting.
Representatives of the Tongan community group spoke to councillors at a meeting in December about their situation.
They asked the council for time to allow them to sort a new home.
Jay Coote - speaking on behalf of the Trust - felt the discussion at that meeting was positive. He believed councillors were in favour of letting them stay until an alternative venue was found.
Coote also felt councillors were keen to help in that quest to find an alternative venue.
At the meeting, Rugby Park and the Blind Low Vision NZ building at Queens Dr were suggested as possible options for the Tongan group.
However, Coote, on reflection, felt they were simply encouraging words spoken by councillors with little action following that.
The council has since progressed with removing them despite the group still needing a new home.
Coote - who has effectively become an adopted Tongan - was frustrated that the group was now homeless.
He witnessed firsthand how important the pavilion and outside tennis court area had become to Southland’s Tongan community since they moved there in 2021.
Moogan said the lease was unable to be renewed or extended again as this space has been earmarked for use in the Project 1225 development to construct Te Unua Museum of Southland.
“Physical works on the site are scheduled to get underway in February, including undertaking demolition surveys and contractor site establishment.
“While Invercargill City Council allowed Kalapu Maile Ua Charitable Trust members to continue to access and use the site for as long as possible, work scheduled to begin soon will make it unsafe to continue to do so.”
Up until 2021, the group would gather in a garage at one of its members’ house in Glengarry.
While helping organise a cultural games day in 2021 Coote met with the Kalapu Maile Ua Charitable Trust and became aware that the Trust was searching for a new space to call home.
Coote stepped in and helped connect them with the former tennis pavilion at Queens Park which was vacant.
The Invercargill City Council - through its Community Wellbeing Fund - provided funding to cover the Trust’s pavilion lease, which was about $3000 per year.
“It provided a hub for the Tongan community. There are about 200 people or families across Southland in the Tongan community,” Coote said.
“All the time there are people moving down for work opportunities or even sporting opportunities. They came here [to the Queens Park pavilion] to meet other Tongan people.”
“The tennis court was always activated when they were here, they’d be playing tennis or pickleball.”
“Inside the building, every Friday, Saturday, Sunday night they would be here singing, drinking kava and just staying touch.”
The Trust also acquired funding from ILT to create music lessons for youth at the pavilion to ensure the strong connection to music continued within Southland’s Tongan community.
Coote said they have been searching for other venue options but have yet to land anything suitable.
Given singing was a massive part of the Tongan culture, and many in the group utilised the pavilion late at night, after working nightshift, the Trust required a space away from a residential area.
