Maori History

 

Te Atatu Peninsula is part of the Waitakere’s Henderson Ward, which covers the areas of Te Atatu South, Te Atatu Peninsula, Henderson and Glendene.

 

The population of the Henderson ward at the 2001 Census was 40,086, with a projected population of 42,700 by the year 2002. Henderson is the slowest growing of all the wards in Waitakere City, with the population growing by 16% over a 10 year period.

The Henderson ward has a high percentage of young people, with over one third (36%) of its residents under the age of 24.2 The census also reveals that nearly half of all families in the ward are couples with children.

 

Maori and Pacific Island people make up fifteen percent each of the Henderson Ward with Asian ethnicity making up twelve percent. The remaining population identifies themselves as New Zealand European.

 

The first peoples of the Auckland region were the Patupaiarehe or Turehu (the people “who arose from the Earth”, human in appearance with reddish hair, fair skin, musical voices and superhuman abilities. All tribes of the region today claim descent from the Turehu. The land between the west coast, Waitemata and Manukau Harbours and the Whau portage has seen more than a thousand years of Maori occupation and use. The Auckland Isthmus experienced many waves of Polynesian migration over the millennium with each new group to the area finding existing tribes within whom they would eventually mix.

 

The Kawerau A Maki have been a distinct tribal entity since the early 1600’s when their ancestor Maki and his people settled in the Waitakere area. However they have ancestral links with people occupying the area at least as early as the 14th century.

 

Toi te Huatahi, an ancestor or Kawerau, was said to have visited Waitakere and some of his people settled in the area. From his niece Pare-ira comes the name Waiapeira or in full “Wai o pareira”. Ngati Whatua also have links to West Auckland.

 

They established themselves on the Auckland Isthmus in the mid 17th century after defeating the Waiohua peoples under the leadership of Rangatira Tuperiri and Te Wahaakiaki. Due to the important marriages between themselves and Te Kawerau, the latter were left in peace in the Waitakere ranges and west Auckland.

 

The Ngapuhi excursions in the 1820’s had a severe effect on both Te Kawerau and Ngati Whatua and much of the Isthmus was abandoned until the 1830s when they returned under the protection of Te Wherowhero.

 

Maori settlement in west Auckland was largely based around the coast and the redhills soils that were suitable for growing kumara. Fishing and resource gathering settlements were numerous along the coastal edges. The harbours and adjacent land were used extensively, particularly during the summer months, for fishing camps and the collection of resources from the forests and coasts, including timber, birds and plant fibres. The Whau Portage, Riverhead Portage, the Kaipara to Whau walking track and the Te Henga to Whau walking track formed the backbone of a comprehensive communications network through west Auckland.

 

Archaeological evidence shows a clear pattern of site distribution, with settlement particularly focussed on headlands jutting out into the harbour and at the entrance to major estuaries or creeks.

 

These locations provided easy access to the harbour and inland sites, easy canoe landings, fresh water and land suitable for seasonal gardens and would have been visited year after year to keep the gardens and maintain fishing rights.

 

By the 1850’s, the Crown had purchased the Waitakere land east of the main ridge and, following the purchase of the land west of the ridge in 1854, the remaining Kawerau people were reduced to living in ‘Native Reserves’ near the west coast. 

Ngati Whatua, who had occupied their Karangahape Pa at Cornwallis up until 1837, moved to their Orakei settlement as their estate was also rapidly alienated. Despite this, some traditional patterns of settlement continued well into the 20th century. There are records of local Maori who lived on campsites along the banks of the Taimata Creek (Te Atatu) and grew potatoes, kumara and other vegetables and dug kauri gum for a living.

 

The ARC Cultural Heritage Inventory lists an archaeological site that is a shell midden, hidden and partly eroded, in Henderson Creek Esplanade Reserve below Waitakere Stadium.

 

The following is the Heritage report as received from Te Kawarau a Maki which is included in its entirety as received.

 

The Maori place names of the Upper Waitemata foreshore and its environs reflect the area’s thousand-year history of human occupation. This area is well known by the iwi of Te Kawerau A Maki as Te Wairoa O Kahu or ‘the long stretch of water of Kahu’. This and many other names not only describe the topography of the land, its natural resources and their usage, but they also commemorate specific ancestors, events and traditions.

 

To those familiar with them and their historical associations, these names are landmarks that act as a constant reminder of the past. They act as tohu or symbols providing proof of traditional ownership to Te Kawerau A Maki people today, just as they did to their ancestors before them. Landmarks and their names are central to the identity of all Maori tribal groups.

 

This is certainly the case with Te Kawerau A Maki, who continue to use the more famous place names in whaikorero or traditional speechmaking to establish their identity and to express their emotional ties with their ancestral home. This identity is expressed in the following pepeha:

Ko Puketotara te maunga

Ko Waitakere te awa

Ko Te Au o Te Whenua te tangata

Ko Te Kawerau a Maki te iwi

Puketotara is the mountain

Waitakere is the river

Te Au o Te Whenua is the person

Te kawerau a maki is the tribe

 

Outlined below is a list of those wahi tapu in and around Te Atatu Peninsula Park that have a significant connection with Te Kawerau A Maki.

The list identifies traditional names and some of the history associated with the name, however it must be noted that traditional Te Kawerau A Maki boundaries significantly differ to how the English ‘grid-system’ is viewed and used today. In this regard, some of the wahi tapu may extend beyond the boundary of the Harbourview site.

 

Orukuwai or ‘Te Rohe O Rukuwai’ literally translated means ‘the region of Rukuwai’.

Rukuwai is an ancestor of Te Kawerau A Maki. The particular area for which Rukuwai was known is at the furthest point of the Te Atatu Peninsula.

 

Te Atatu Peninsula is traditionally known to Te Kawerau A Maki as Orangihina.    ‘O-Rangihina’ or ‘of Rangihina’ refers to the ancestress Rangihina. She is an ancestor of Te Kawerau A Maki, known moreso as the wife of the great warrior Te Au O Te Whenua.

 

Te Kawerau A Maki people moved over their tribal domain in a seasonal cycle of resource gathering. The natural resources of this area were rich and included the bounty of both the land and the sea. From the land the huge resource of the forest included fruit, medicine, birds, weaving materials, dyes and timber. The peninsula seacoast offered shellfish, fish, seaweeds such as karengo, birds, bird’s eggs, and at times seal. It was indeed a place of plenty as is illustrated by the Kawerau proverb:

“He toka hapuku ki te moana, he kaihua ki uta.”

“A rock in the sea where hapuku abound, a tree where birds are speared on the land.”

 

Te Whau (the Whau River), which takes its name from the whau tree, is the Kawerau A Maki name for the tidal creek flowing into the Waitemata Harbour. It is also the name of a Kawerau A Maki headland pa off Blockhouse Bay, on the shores of the Manukau Harbour. Te Whau is part of the vast area known as Te Wao Nui O Tiriwa (The Great Forest of Tiriwa) – the ancient Kawerau name for West Auckland. Kawerau used the Whau for centuries as an important transport route between the two harbours. The Whau was rich in food resources and large trees nearby also provided the locals with all that they needed to build canoes.

 

The Kawerau name of a creek at the headwaters of the Whau on the eastern side. The area was particularly significant for the building and lashing of canoes in its halcyon days. In its simplest form, it means ‘the dovetailing of canoes’.

 

“Ureia’s Comb”. Ureia is known as the sacred taniwha of the upper Waitemata harbour.

For Te Kawerau A Maki, the physical and spiritual worlds are seen to be intimately linked. They are two sides of a coin and cannot be usefully separated. Ultimately, all elements of the physical world share the same spiritual parents, Ranginui and Papatuanuku. Therefore, in the Maori view, humanity is a part of, rather than apart from, the natural world in both a physical and spiritual sense.

 

Ranginui and Papatuanuku are the male and female gods out of which all things are derived. Out of their union many offspring were born, including the gods of the sky, forest, sea, wind, and sun. Tane, the god of the forest, mated with several female personifications, none of whom were human, and produced many species of trees, birds, insects, rocks etc., but failed to produce human life. He asked Papatuanuku for guidance and she advised him to go to a particular beach and mould the red clay there into a figure. He did this with the help of his brothers and then breathed hau ora (life) into the figure, which came to life with a sneeze (tihe mauri ora). This first woman was named Hine-ahu-one, and the offspring of Tane and Hine were human. Thus, in the Maori worldview, humanity is linked by whakapapa (genealogy) to all other species.

These metaphysical beliefs are supported by the dependence the Te Kawerau A Maki have historically had upon the land, rivers and sea for their survival. This relationship is reflected in place names found throughout this area. Two place names provide reminders of the nature of land-use in pre-European times. On the Te Atatu peninsula was the settlement known as Ohapoko. In an area where cultivatible land was at a premium this fertile flat became an important settlement site.

It was not only used as a gardening area, but being located in an inconspicuous and warm locality, it was used to store much of the kumera crop over winter. It is from this that its name Ohapoko, or ‘the place of the food storage pits’ originates. On the Waitemata coast is a stream known as Manutewhau, however its correct Te Kawerau A Maki name is Maanu Te Whau. Maanu means ‘float’ and the name refers to the floats made from the whau tree which were tied to nets.

Although the name is now given to the Manutewhau Stream which flows into Lawsons Creek, it more appropriately applies to Lawsons Creek, as this

is the area where the nets were mainly set. The name generally alludes to the fact that the wider upper Waitemata area provided an abundant source of food.

 

This knowledge of the workings of the environment and the perceptions of humanity as part of the natural and spiritual world is expressed in the concept of mauri and kaitiaki. Mauri can be described as the life force that is present in all things. Mauri generates, regenerates and upholds creation, binding physical and spiritual elements of all things together. Without mauri things cannot survive. Practices have been developed over many centuries to maintain the mauri of all parts of the world. Observing these practices involves the ethic and exercise of kaitiakitanga.

 

The following summarises matters set out in Te Kawerau a Maki’s Resource Management Statement.

 

Te Kawerau a Maki concerns include the protection of the mauri of all natural waterways, and that the food producing capacity of natural waterways is protected and enhanced, as is their life supporting capacity. Te Kawerau A Maki advocates water conservation and efficient use of water, opposes the direct disposal of any waster into waterways and requires that waste pass through the soils before discharge. Te Kawerau A Maki prefers waterways  to be managed to a level that ensures their use as a food source and supports active restoration programmes, including stream edge planting. Above all Te Kawerau A Maki require spiritual and cultural concepts to be recognised as key issues in water management.

 

Te Kawerau a Maki’s insist protection of:

• All heritage sites (Pakeha and Maori)

• Water quality

• The quality and availability of kaimoana (seafood)

To limit the disposal of wastes from boats and to manage any development and use of coastal space to avoid adverse effects on water quality and coastal character.

In particular Te Kawerau a Maki has an interest in any increase in access to areas on the coast that may impact on significant heritage sites; ensuring that spiritual and cultural concepts are recognised as key issues in managing this area; supporting active programmes to enhance the coastal area, the ecology of the upper Waitemata Harbour, and the west coast area known as Nga Tai Whakatu A Kupe.

 

As stated above, direct disposal of wastes into waterways is opposed by Te Kawerau a Maki. Te Kawerau A Maki is also concerned that in the selection of sites for wastewater and solid waste treatment or disposal, cultural and spiritual values of the land water and air shall be maintained. Te Kawerau A Maki opposes the generation, entry or disposal of toxic or hazardous waste within their tribal area. More particularly, Te Kawerau A Maki advocates the treatment of stormwater before it is discharged into waterways.

 

Te Kawerau a Maki is concerned with the promotion of sustainable land management and the protection of its productive capacity ensuring that native bush and fauna are protected and that the cultural meaning, amenity and aesthetic values of the landscape are protected. In terms of landscape, the protection of important sites and places associated with ancestors is of the utmost importance. Te Kawerau A Maki has as a pre-eminent concern, that a land-base and marae complex supporting Te Kawerau a Maki is re-established.

 

Te Kawerau a Maki’s key concerns in relation to native plants and wildlife are:

• Having access to flora and fauna for cultural harvest and craft

•Protecting and enhancing indigenous flora and fauna and their ecosystems

•Eradicating exotic plants and animals that are damaging, destroying or competing with native species or their ecosystems

Participating in decisions on the introduction of new plants and animals to the country; ensuring that property rights (patents, licenses) are not given to native species in breach of Treaty rights.

Te Kawerau A Maki supports the protection of regenerating bush and regulations that limit native vegetation clearance during development to the minimum necessary for an allowed activity.

 

In terms of heritage, Te Kawerau A Maki wishes to: ensure protection without necessarily prohibiting all use and development in areas associated with the iwi’s heritage; ensure recognition of and provision for, cultural and spiritual values in

decision-making; to have opportunities to manage, enhance and monitor heritage concerns relating to waahi tapu.

Note: Te Kawerau a Maki have identified those areas on the Te Atatu peninsula that it sees as particularly significant in terms of cultural heritage and waahi tapu, and which it would wish to see acknowledged as areas that have a special significance in the iwi’s relationship with their ancestral lands and other taonga. Any land within these areas has a general significance for the iwi, but in particular, Te Kawerau A Maki requires particular protection of significant sites (waahi tapu) found in those areas identified.

 

The information shared in this analysis is significant particularly for purposes of  maintaining the recognition, protection and promotion of Maori cultural and historical values in managing the Te Atatu Peninsula Park area. There is a level of expectation that this study offers some insight to the world of Te Kawerau A Maki and their historical associations with Te Atatu. This place remains a special part of the greater Wao nui a Tiriwa and although there has been many a face change to this area, there still exists today the tapu, mana, and ihi of former times. As is traditional, this discussion must end with a waiata. In this case it is a Kawerau lament pertaining to the upper Waitemata Harbour:

 

 

(Source: www.waitakere.govt.nz)