Tangoio Marae in Esk Valley north of Napier was built on housie raffles and other fundraisers.
Brothers Joe and Bevan Taylor know every inch of their meeting house.
"This is our town hall, this is our library, this is everything. This is our hospital, this, all of that, you know," said builder and carver Joe Taylor.
The brothers not only helped build Tangoio in the late 1980s, they also worked on its carvings.
"It just broke our hearts, it was so emotional. I was crying inside, people had to awhi me," said Joe's younger brother, Bevan Taylor.
More than a week after the floods, whanau gathered to pay their respects - organising a whakamoemiti (ceremony) to give thanks and say farewell to this special place.
Despite the constant rain and treacherous, mud-soaked silt, whanau flocked to Tangoio Marae.
A team from Heritage New Zealand and Te Papa were also there to lend their expertise.
The head of Mātauranga Māori at Te Papa, Migoto Eria, said: "Our job is to support the work that the iwi are doing, they have all the answers, we're just here to assist them and help them move forward in the months and years ahead. It's going to be a long road ahead of them so our job is to help and support them."
For the past 30 years, Heritage New Zealand's Dean Whiting has been working with marae around the country for the conservation of taonga, but the mammoth task ahead cleaning up after Cyclone Gabrielle is a first for him.
"This is a tremendously sad day for the people here," Whiting said.
"The devastation is more than you can fathom… you can just see that it's going to take some time to get back, people to get back on their feet."
People whose own homes have been destroyed are turning up to Tangoio Marae, working long hours to clean vast quantities of silt from tukutuku panels and carvings crafted decades earlier by their whānau.
Whiting and his team are almost finished surveying the damage done to their taonga.
"Actually the taonga is in good shape and beautifully sheltered by the whare that's around it. So that's the amazing thing, is this building actually protected them," he said.
He's praised the enormous effort whanau have made.
"They've got the main silt material off and cleaned it and so and they're starting to dry out, so they're in good shape, that was the really surprising thing I think," Whiting added.
"The carvings are quite resilient and are quite robust, so it's really the tukutuku panels that are the concern and their mahi now is getting the mud out, then there will be the next phase when they go to dismantle."
Forty-five minutes south of Tangoio is the settlement of Omahu. This entire community was almost washed away when the Ngaruroro River broke its banks three weeks ago.
While Omahu Marae wasn't badly affected, their urupā (cemetery) was directly in the cyclone's destructive path. Water from the raging river scoured six feet deep, overturning gravestones and leaving human bones scattered.
Heritage New Zealand and Te Papa are working closely with this community and want iwi and hapū to take the lead in the restoration of taonga.
"The kōiwi (human bones) which have been collected, we're keeping them in the wharekarakia (church) and then we'll look to reinterring them once the recovery effort's a bit more along the way," local minister Reverend Zhane Tahau-Whelan said.
Meanwhile back in Esk Valley, the carvings and panels will be taken down and safely stored in the coming days.
Bevan is bracing for the experts' verdict.
"When we clear the carvings inside the experts will have a good look to see if there is any structural damage. If there's structural damage then this whare will come down," he said.
"It's an emotional time for us, but we have got to get on with it. We've got to lift our chin up and move forward."
Made with support from Te Māngai Pāho and the Public Interest Journalism Fund.
