It was their "piece of paradise" - a corner of Northland steeped in history and natural beauty, where time passed at a gentle pace and people rarely locked their doors. But not any more.
By Peter De Graaf of RNZ
Two violent deaths in as many weeks have left Hokianga residents feeling vulnerable and afraid.
On June 1, Tārati Buckley - a 76-year-old retired principal, champion of te reo Māori and highly regarded kuia - died at her home in Ōpononi, about 270km north of Auckland.
A 26-year-old local man has been charged with her murder as well as burgling her home and torching her car.
Less than two weeks earlier a young man, whose name has yet to be formally released by police, died after an altercation in the isolated Wekaweka Valley.
Police investigating his death are still describing it as unexplained.
Michelle Sarich - the current tumuaki, or principal, of Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hokianga - said the death of Whāea Tārati had an enormous impact.
"I guess we always felt that we lived in a piece of paradise, and that paradise has been absolutely shattered."
Now Sarich is leading a drive to bring Hokianga residents together and protect the vulnerable, while trying to loosen methamphetamine's grip on their community.
Before Whāea Tārati's death, few Hokianga residents locked their doors, she said.
Now they were not just locking up, they were installing cameras and security lights.
"We're dealing with people that are living on their own, people who are very scared at the moment, and who are taking extra precautions in their own homes to make themselves feel safer."
Those fears, and the deep hurt felt by many across the Hokianga, prompted Sarich to call a community meeting at the kura on July 1, one month to the day after Whāea Tārati's death.
Hundreds attended at short notice.
Sarich said the aim of that first meeting was to give people a chance to come together, share their stories, and find a way forward.
Many people talked about things that had happened in their homes, or about their calls for police help going unanswered.
"It showed the historical hurt that even when we've called out, there's been no net there to save us from what we needed saving from," she said.
"Some people had been waiting in their homes [for police] five or seven hours for something that might have been really, really serious, so we're just feeling really fragile, not quite sure where to turn to."
Sarich said there was some anti-police sentiment at the meeting, but most people understood a few officers were responsible for a vast area.
The nearest police station, in the town of Rāwene, had just two officers; the closest bigger station was in Kaikohe, a 40-minute drive away.
"We understand they can't always follow up. We understand there are other demands on their time. We wanted to come together, not to police bash, we're not here for that, but to see how we can work together in the future to make this space our paradise once again."
Decisions that came out of the meeting included establishing a hapori (community) network to help vulnerable people feel safer in their homes, and a Facebook page called Hokianga tū mai ('Hokianga stand together') to share information.
Follow-up meetings would focus on concrete solutions such as setting up a phone tree to quickly mobilise help when it was needed, and possibly even issuing trespass notices en masse against drug dealers.
While the full facts had yet to emerge, methamphetamine was thought to have played a part in both tragedies.
A number of police attended the July 1 meeting, including Kaikohe-based Senior Sergeant Clem Armstrong, response manager for the Mid and Far North.
He described the meeting as "positive, respectful and solutions focussed", and offered advice on ways people could keep themselves safe.
"There were feelings of anxiety. There were feelings of being unsettled and unsafe. No one should have to feel unsafe in their own home."
He also told the meeting the issues facing Hokianga were not unique.
"It is a small rural community. As much as I would love to have 10 rural cops out in the Hokianga, that is not a reality at the moment."
Armstrong also issued a challenge to Hokianga residents who had so far kept quiet about drug dealing in their midst.
"Meth, that plague, is a big driver of crime. A lot of community members know who is doing what. And we simply can't read minds. What I told the community was, if there is something you know or see, report it."
Armstrong said people should call 111 in an emergency or 105 to pass on information. They could also pass tips to Crimestoppers, anonymously, by calling 0800 555 111.
He pledged to keep working with the Hokianga community as they looked for answers.
Among those already pursuing solutions is Te Kapehu i Te Kainga, a group set up by Ōpononi's Pākanae Marae to combat the meth epidemic.
Social worker Faith Murray said the drug was nothing new in Hokianga - but use had escalated dramatically in recent years.
Alongside the continued import of the drug, the area had many out-of-the-way places where meth could be cooked, or manufactured, without detection.
A police bust across Northland and Auckland last month, for example, uncovered a manufacturing operation in tiny Ōmanaia, near Rāwene.
The drug had a devastating effect, Murray said.
"Disintegration of family is probably the biggest thing. There's also the mental health crisis, and the extra strain it puts on emergency services, our hospital, and in particular our tamariki (children)."
Murray said the first cohort of meth users had just graduated from a Te Kapehu residential treatment programme in Kaikohe.
More programmes would be held in future, but would be based in Hokianga.
In coming weeks Te Kapehu would start visiting known drug-dealing spots with a cart offering free kai and coffee.
The idea behind Te Whata Kōrero was to discourage dealers while engaging with users about where they could get help.
"It's so we can have free coffee and kōrero about the methamphetamine problems people are having, whether they are users themselves, neighbours of users, or in a family of users. We want to talk about how we can help them."
People would also encouraged to pass information to police using the non-emergency number 105.
Murray said staff were happy to pass messages to police if people were afraid to do it themselves.
The initiatives had been funded by the government's Resilience to Organised Crime in Communities (ROCC) programme, which used assets seized from criminal gangs to pay for grassroots work reducing methamphetamine harm.
Te Kapehu was also planning to set up community patrols, to deter dealing and to check in on vulnerable people, and continuing its work addressing the trauma that made people turn to drugs in the first place.
Murray was convinced Hokianga could rid itself of the drug.
"People say that's impossible. I don't believe it is. It is going to take a community though. There's no point in relying on one or two police to do all our work for us. It's up to all of us."
Michelle Sarich agreed working together was the answer.
"At the moment people are sitting behind closed doors, locked doors now. A lot of our people are scared, they don't know what to do because they feel that they're completely on their own. We have to understand that power comes in unity and it comes in numbers."
She said the death of Whāea Tārati had also affected students at the kura.
"It's been very hard to deal with. Our children feel it, they hear about it all around the community. We share what we need to share with them, but most importantly we offer them a space of safety within the school and safety networks within our community if they need that."
Sarich said she had to play a part in the search for solutions because Whāea Tārati, a previous tumuaki at the school, had been so close.
"It's personal," she said.
"I believe everything in life has a purpose of learning in it. But when we've lost such a valuable person in our lives … I can't see any purpose in that at the moment. However, I need to dig deep, I need to find a purpose, I need to find the understanding and the learning. And if this learning is going to help us in the future to save a life that shouldn't be lost, then this is the pathway that we need to tread."
The next public meeting will be held at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hokianga, on Koutu Point Road in South Hokianga, on July 23.
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