Two weeks before NZ went into level 4 lockdown, a collective of kaumātua from Te Rereatukāhia Marae in the Bay of Plenty approached their marae committee to put up a border to keep them and the people living in the pā protected from Covid-19.
As soon as the word was given by the elders, the borders went up at Te Rereatukāhia.
"Do the job no matter what it takes, the most important thing is to protect the elderly in this pā," Te Rereatukāhia Marae spokesperson Hohepa Hamiora says.
Before NZ went into lockdown, the pā of Te Rereatukāhia closed the borders to protect their marae and its descendants that reside there.
"It was a group of us elders who decided that we want to close the pā off to protect our marae and our hapū," Kerewai Wanakore says.
"We want to protect what's ours in here, and our whare tipuna and our marae are very important, along with our kuia and kaumātua," Hamiora says.
It is not about shutting everyone out but monitoring the movements of people to reduce the risk of Covid-19 for their elders.
"It's about coming up here, smiling at them and asking them who they are and where they have come from, and making a decision whether they are allowed to come through this border gate," Hone Te Whakaara says.
Since putting up the borders, they have been made aware of how many cars have been coming up for no reason at all.
"There's 260 of us here, there's 52 dwellings. So out of all those people, there were probably 400 people coming to these gates and down here to the pā," Hamiora says.
"I think we've sort of identified a lot of traffic that has been travelling there and that's been the best thing for our whānau. There has been a lot of times where people have come down and we don't even know the cars."
But they are committed to upholding the wishes of their elders.
"If it wasn't for the younger generation we would not have been able to close our pā off to keep ourselves safe," Wanakore says.
"We follow the orders of our elders, so we come together - young and old too and all the generations in between - and we have seen the benefits. And here we Te Rereatukāhia are standing strong," Mable Wharekawa Burt (Ngāi Te Rangi) says.
They will remain in place until their elders say otherwise.