Tāmaki Makaurau Cultural Landscapes Pt 2

EPISODE SUMMARY: In part two of our story on Tāmaki Makaurau cultural landscapes, we look at how mana whenua are working with Māori designers to re-shape the City to better reflect their unique identity and culture, and to create a distinctive sense of place that benefits us all.

---

GUESTS: Lucy Tukua, Bernadette Aperahama

---

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake: The rural to urban migration that began after World War 2 saw a generation of Māori flock to the cities. But mana whenua in Tāmaki Makaurau never moved to the City - the metropolis that is Auckland has grown up around them, historically without their participation and often resulting in the destruction of settlements and important sites.

In recent years, mana whenua participation in development has increased exponentially. Tools like Te Aranga have supported mana whenua to work collaboratively as part of project teams to creatively reinterpret their own narratives and histories, and to apply these to the construction of new buildings and landscapes.

Lucy Tukua: Tēnā tatou katoa, i tū ana, maua i runga i te maunga a Maungarei, te tihi maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau. E whariki nei, ngā maunga e maha, ngā maunga i rongonui o Tāmaki, i te taha nei, ko te Wai-o-Taiki, e rere atu ra ki te Waitematā. Āe, me mihi hoki ki ngā tangata ngā tūpuna, ngā wāhi tapu, kei waenganui. He uri o hau o Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Whanaunga. I noho ana au e Papakura. Ko Lucy Tukua ahau.

JK: So we're standing here on top of Maungarei, looking out over the harbour and over the city, and it's a really beautiful clear, sunny day. So we've been very blessed with the weather. Could you tell me a bit about this place where we're standing, and what it means to you, and to your iwi of Ngāti Paoa?

LT: So Ngāti Paoa were at one point in time the dominant mana whenua iwi here in this particular area. The Pā site that they occupied is known as Mokoia Pā, which sits at the headland at the mouth of Te Kai a Hiku, the Panmure Lagoon. There were a number of Ngāti Paoa that resided here along the foreshore of the Wai-o-Taiki, and it was very well known for it's māra, for it's gardens. And Ngāti Paoa - in terms of their kaitiaki - was the taniwha Moko-ika-hiku-waru. So hence where Panmure Lagoon gets its name from - Te Kai a Hiku, shorted to Hiku, Moko-ika-hiku-waru. And, it's said that this kaitiaki used to corral fish into the Panmure Lagoon, and that's why it's called Te Kai a Hiku, the food bowl of Hiku.

As we know, the Tāmaki River, Te Wai o Taiki, was one of the important highways, State Highway 1 for our waka, back in the day, and also with the Tainui waka coming through this area, accessing the Manukau Harbour over the Otahuhu portage. It was a place where many lived, and interacted with other tribes. But also acknowledging that, Ngāti Paoa weren't the only occupiers of this area, and just acknowledge the other mana whenua in this area as well. I think in this day in age, a lot of people are really interested about the purakau and the cultural narratives of Māori, of mana whenua, and in particular, like the names of places and mountains and rivers. The harbour. You know, the beautiful story about Te Kai a Hiku. That was his food bowl.

Maungarei, about the sisters Reitū and Reipae. Like most good narratives, everybody's got their own story, but the story that I know is, so Reitū and Reipae, beautiful Waikato wāhine that were keen on a chief from up in the north. And so, they were on a mission to partner with this chief, and they summoned their kaitiaki, which was a manu. So this particular maunga is named after that event of them journeying up into the north, and coming here to Maungarei. So if we take that particular narrative, and the work that was done on the Auckland Transport project, the Panmure Station roofline represents the manu or the kaitiaki of those two wāhine.

JK: Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode 6.

I’m your host Jade Kake and this is Indigenous Urbanism, stories about the spaces we inhabit, and the community drivers and practitioners who are shaping those environments and decolonising through design.

In part two of our story on Tāmaki Makaurau cultural landscapes, we look at how mana whenua are shaping the city to better reflect the culture and history of place, and to promote a more responsible and regenerative ongoing relationship with our environment.

We spoke with Lucy Tukua, nō Ngāti Paoa raua ko Ngāti Whanaunga. Lucy has been a driving force behind the application of the principles from a mana whenua perspective.

We met with Lucy at Panmure Station, which is in shadow of Maungarei and is part of the first stage of the Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative.

LT: In my capacity as the Environment Manager for Ngāti Paoa I was involved in the Panmure Station quite closely, and the mana whenua that were invol...