Ngati Whatua history of Auckland
Ngati Whatua - The People of Orakei | The
Founding of Auckland
Toitu he kainga, whatungarongaro he tangata - People pass on but our home in
the land remains.
Only a few kilometres from the centre of Auckland City, there is a piece of
land called the Orakei block, which has a special significance for both Maori
and non-Maori people alike.
Situated between Hobson Bay and Mission Bay, it includes the suburb of Orakei,
Okahu Bay, Orakei Domain, the Savage Memorial, and Bastion Point.
The history of this land tells us much about how the city of Auckland was
created. Ngati Whatua of Orakei, the Maori hapu which once owned the land, paid
an immense price when it was lost to them. The story of the land at Orakei helps
us to understand what tribal land ownership means to the Maori people.
Ngati Whatua - The People of Orakei
Ngati Whatua of Orakei are a hapu of the Ngati Whatua tribe, which is based
at Kaipara. They lived in the Auckland area for many hundreds of years. Their
land was rich and fertile, an economic and spiritual resource for the hapu which
was the basis of their identity. The whole hapu owned the land communally and
they worked it together, tending crops and gathering food from the surrounding
coastline and countryside. The tribal base or papakainga was at Okahu Bay.
The Founding of Auckland
In 1840, Ngati Whatua of Orakei invited English settlers to share the land
with them. Te Kawau, their paramount chief, wanted to offer hospitality, but he
also wanted to gain some security against other tribes, especially the northern
tribes which had muskets. So, in February 1840, Te Kawau and six other chiefs
travelled to the Bay of Islands to invite Governor Hobson to come and live with
them, partly to seek protection from their enemies. On 20 March, Te Kawau and
other chiefs of Ngati Whatua of Orakei signed the Treaty of Waitangi. By
September, the British flagstaff was raised at a point which is now the top of
Queen Street, and Auckland became the capital of New Zealand.
Ngati Whatua of Orakei agreed to hand over approximately 3000 acres of land
for a township to be established. The details of the sale of the land were to be
worked out later. In the following years, the peaceful, loyal, and law-abiding
hapu defended the new Auckland settlement many times against invading tribes.
Ngati Whatua made other gifts of land. In 1858, they gave land at Orakei to
the Anglican Church for a chapel and school. The following year, they gave a
headland at Orakei, Takaparawha Point, to the Crown for a defence post against a
feared Russian invasion. The land was given on the condition that if it was no
longer required, it would be returned to them. This was part of the Maori custom
of giving gifts to friends.
As more settlers arrived, more and more land was required. Thousands of acres
were sold by Ngati Whatua of Orakei to the Government and, over a couple of
years, to private settlers. The tribe probably believed that these sales meant
that both parties, themselves and the buyer, then belonged to the land together.
Later, Governor Grey decided that much of the land should not have been sold to
private settlers, so most of it was bought or simply taken by the Crown, without
compensation.
The Crown paid £341 for the original land handed over for the settlement
(3000 acres). Six months later, just 44 acres of that land was resold by the
Government to settlers for £24,275. The money was used to build roads, bridges,
hospitals, and other services for the new town. The early development of
Auckland was paid for by profits made from the sale of tribal land of Ngati
Whatua of Orakei.
Te Kawau had always made it clear that the 700-acre Orakei block, the
papakainga of the hapu, was not for sale. It was to be reserved in tribal
ownership for Ngati Whatua of Orakei forever. By 1854, only 14 years after their
initial offer of land for Auckland, it was all the land the hapu had left.
Orakei was their 'last stand'.
NB: Information copied from the Waitangi Tribunal website.
http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/forschools/orakei/
For more information about Ngati Whatua o Orakei check out their website:
http://www.ngatiwhatuaorakei.com
