the marae getting a small town back on its feet
Michelle McIlroy is exhausted - not that she has time to be, she says.
“You collapse at night and your bones are sore,” she chuckled. “But you go, ‘Snap out of it, you’ve gotta carry on! We’ll collapse later’.”
McIlroy is running the distribution centre set up at her marae, Hinemihi, on the outskirts of Wairoa - the Hawke’s Bay town devastated by floods a week ago that, until Sunday, was cut off from the outside world.
From the crack of dawn until well after dusk, she co-ordinates the marae’s disaster response, which involves whānau cooking hundreds of meals, sending out packs and offering labour, or a meal and a hug.
Link to commentary and article: Cyclone Gabrielle: ‘It’s for Wairoa, bro’ - the marae getting a small town back on its feet - NZ Herald
