Waiwhetū

Waiwhetū is an eastern suburb of Lower Hutt in the Wellington Region situated in the south of the North Island of New Zealand.

In the 19th-century period of European settlement land at Waiwhetū was worked by Irish-born Alfred Ludlam, who was a member of three of New Zealand's four earliest parliaments.

In the 1840s land was set aside by the New Zealand Company as a native reserve for the Te Āti Awa tribe.

In the 1930s the New Zealand government compulsorily acquired land at Waiwhetū and built new homes for Te Āti Awa.

The marae, founded in 1960, includes the Arohanui ki te Tangata wharenui (meeting house).

[15] The Waiwhetū Stream is a small watercourse that flows through the suburb and drains the eastern side of the Hutt Valley.

Development and urbanisation of the Hutt Valley since the arrival of settlers led to increasing pollution and degradation of the stream environment.

Carving detail of te waharoa at Waiwhetū Marae