Kaitaia was originally named Ōrongotea. Orongo is an Easter Island name, it was a stone village and ceremonial center at the southwestern tip of Rapanui (Easter Island).
The Kaitaia carving was recovered from lake Tangonge 8 kms away near Kaitaia, found when the lake that was drained in the 1920s. It was embedded in solid clay over one metre deep under 3 metres of alluvial soil. Clay forms over a long period of time, over many hundreds of years. The wood the artifact is carved from is totara.
< Men digging a drainage ditch in the Kaitaia swamp. Northwood brothers :Photographs of Northland. Ref: 1/1-010651-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23080855
The Kaitaia carving can be seen at the Auckland Museum.
If the Kaitaia area was combed with ground penetrating radar it is likely other artefacts would be found at the same depth. The area has been riddled with ancient canals and so this is an old site of occupation.
The Awanui fragment and carving
The Awanui slab was dug up out of a swamp at Awanui. Awanui is on the banks of the Awanui river between Kaitaia and the south end of the Aupouri Peninsula in the far north.
The Tangata Whenua site have found an old newspaper article pertaining to this: The Awanui ‘slab’ The newspaper article states, “In this case it must be classed as pre-Maori.”
The ancient canals adjacent to the Awanui River
This is only a part of a huge system of cut drains for eel traps and fertile, raised-earth gardening platforms sitting adjacent to the Awanui River, Northland. It was photographed by the US Airforce in 1944 and even by that time was in a severe state of decay due to abandonment and no maintenance for, probably, centuries.
Source: celticnz THE MOA HUNTER CANAL BUILDERS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND.
Kaitaia is at the base of the Aupōuri Peninsula. According to this site the Maori name Kaitaia means means ‘food destroyed by flood.’ Source: madonnewzealand.com. It’s a pity the Maori never knew of or maintained the ancient drains.
See the Waitaha artifacts page for the Doubtless Bay canoe Prow and stern, Auckland Museum.
Links
The Muriwhenua are a group of six northern Māori iwi occupying the northernmost part of the North Island surrounding Kaitaia. It consists of six iwi, Ngāti Kurī, Ngāi Takoto, Te Pātū, Ngāti Kahu, Te Aupōuri and Te Rarawa. Two of these tribes go back to the beginning.
Most of these tribes came out on the Kurahaupo canoe. NOTE—There is confusion in some Maori geneologies arising from the fact that two canoes named Kurahaupo sailed from Hawaiki for New Zealand.
Ngāti Kuri (along with the extinct Waikato tribe Ngati Kahupungapunga) also claim descent from Ruatamore. Like the Te Aitangi-a-Hauiti tribe of Tolaga Bay, Te Rarawa genealogy descends from Māui and the attributes of Māui are found throughout their culture and cultural institutions.
Nukutawhiti is said to be the captain of the Mamari canoe, who met Kupe and from whom Ngapuhi of the Hokianga and the Bay of Islands trace their descent.
The tradition of Nuku-tawhiti bears trace of great age.
The name of the house built by him in New Zealand was Whatupungapunga.
Orongotea:– the ancient Easter Island name for Kaitaia. According to the Tangata Whenua website, ‘tea’ means dawn in the Rapanui language. So this name could mean “the new dawn of Orongo.”
Kaitaia, the principal centre of the northern part of Northland, is situated in the valley of the Awanui River.
Prehistoric drains of the Kaipara
Extensive canal building and intensive wetlands gardening went hand-in-hand in other parts of ancient New Zealand as well. There are ancient canals at Wairau Lagoon near Blenheim, 19 kilometres of hand-dug canals that linked the waterways of the alluvial plain together.
Ngu
The man who owned this land originally was Ngu, who lived at Muri-whenua, and from him came the Karitehe or Turehu,” a mythical people, who are often by Europeans called Fairies. The narrative goes on: “The iwi tuturu (or own people) of this ancestor (Ngu) are Te Au-pouri and Ngati-kuri tribes.
Source: The Journal of the Polynesian Society, The peopling of the North: notes on the ancient Maori history of the northern peninsula and sketches of the history of the Ngati-Whatua tribe of Kaipara.
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