Walk #91, 30th August 2022
Getting in to the site took some doing because the protestors have closed the public road, but we found some people gardening and they let us come in. There is disputed land, Ihumateao, next door to the park, I’ll leave their info about it at the bottom of the page and you can read all about it.
I got the sense walking over the land that the volcanic gardens are ancient and were in use long before the Tainui canoe arrived.
It was very peaceful, probably because we had the whole place to ourselves.
The park is the site of Auckland’s smallest volcano.
Puketaapapa Cone: This is the smallest of the 60-odd extinct volcanic cones of the Auckland area, being less than 10 metres above its lava base and having a saucer-shaped crater only 12 metres wide.
I hope people can get access to the park but but there’s no political will in Wellington to resolve the protest. The issue is a hot potato the people in government don’t have the wisdom, negotiating skills or ability to resolve.
Walk: Auckland 38
Ihumatao
Since posting that about Ihumatao in 2019, I did more reading about the iwi in charge of this, the Te Kawerau Iwi. The land was confiscated in the 1860’s but there have been Treaty settlements. The protestors can’t have it both ways and need to listen to the Iwi who have successfully negotiated for land for affordable housing in return for that housing development.
Under the deal, Fletcher Building has committed to returning 8ha of land at the site to the Kiingitanga, and Te Warena Taua said houses would also be set aside for mana whenua.
Here’s what the Te Kawerau Iwi had to say:
“We’ll start off with 40 homes coming back to our people at shared-equity ownership. It’s good for us because it will allow for people and their families who come from our village to come back to the village and bring their children and mokopuna up.”
Ihumātao protest: Kaumātua and rangatahi split over development
The story behind the fight to save Ihumātao
Links
Ihumātao: Heritage NZ proposes bigger Ōtuataua Stonefields area, boosting it to Category 1
Ōtuataua Stonefields walk – Mangere
Otuataua Stonefields, NZ History
Two centuries ago, Māori were still cultivating 8000 ha of volcanic stonefields around Tāmaki-makau-rau, the Auckland isthmus. Now just 160 ha of the stonefields remain. They largely fell into disuse after the early 19th-century inter-tribal Musket Wars and were swallowed up by urban sprawl.
Conservationists had to fight hard even to save Ōtuataua’s 100 ha at Māngere, which was bought by the Manukau City Council with help from DOC, the Lotteries Commision and the Auckland Regional Council.
On 10 February 2001, one of New Zealand’s oldest sites became its newest reserve, the Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve. Here you can see Polynesian house sites, storage pits, cooking shelters, terraces, mound gardens, garden plots and garden walls as well as some 19th-century European dry-stone farm walls.
Dave Veart – the Otuataua stonefields
NZ Geographic – Saving Mangere’s agricultural history
Deep History of Ihumātao: The Methodist Connection
Auckland
NZShortWalks 