Ōrākei kaumātua returning to the land, decades after Māori settlement was razed

Friday, 11 December 2020

In 1951, after the Crown took the last of Ngāti Whātua's land, the village was destroyed to make way for a royal visit. Almost seven decades on, the iwi is still rebuilding.

Decades after the Crown razed a Ngāti Whātua settlement and evicted its occupants, more kaumātua are set to return to the land.

Tears flowed as the sun rose over the site in Auckland’s Ōrākei this week, during a special karakia held on Atareta St.

It marked the start of development for 10 new whare for kaumātua.

Mihiata Taylor has been living in her kaumātua home for three years and can’t wait for more people to return to Ōrākei.

In 1951, the Crown took possession of the last remaining papakāinga, homes built on ancestral land, nearby at Ōkahu Bay, and razed the settlement a year later ahead of a visit by Queen Elizabeth II.

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Atareta St in Ōrākei, where 10 new whare will be built for Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei kaumātua.

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This photo, from the Auckland Star on November 24, 1951, shows plans by the Crown for Ōrākei – the low-lying land from Tāmaki Drive to Paora St (to the left of the picture) was to be developed as a recreation area.

Inhabitants were forced out into small state houses, and their extended family lifestyle was broken when some whānau were forced to leave what remained of their tribal land.

The Ōkahu settlement has never been rebuilt.

But the Atareta site in Ōrākei, two kilometres above Ōkahu, is being seen as a rising from the ashes of sorts – the new papakāinga attracting a cohort of kaumātua, or elders, who long to return home.

Kaumātua of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei marked the sod-turning at the new site with a karakia and waiata.

A few hours after the dawn karakia, another gathering took place at the Atareta St site, this time for the sod-turning. A waiata marked the occasion.

For 80-year-old Mihiata Taylor, the event was a sad reminder of the past, but gave her hope for the future.

She was 9 when the papakāinga was burnt down because the Crown considered it an eyesore and potential disease centre.

These state houses were the first to be built on Bastion Point. This photograph was published in the Auckland Star on November 10, 1949.

Her family was part of the group that was evicted to Kitemoana St.

The wailing from the wāhine haunts her to this day.

“My grandmother was still alive, and her sister. They were kaumātua at that time,” Taylor said.

“I remember their sad wailing, it was very sad … it was the whenua [land]. My grandmother didn’t last long after that, nor her sister. They were hurting. And my mum, and her sisters – it hurt them all.

The pa at Ōkahu. (Auckland Star historical photo archive, November 23, 1949)

“We weren’t so bad because we were children, but the adults were. But we still carry that hurt with us, we remember.”

Taylor lives in one of the already-built homes on the new pā site at Atareta St and is looking forward to the return of many others.

“There are some kaumātua that don’t live here, and so many want to return home.”

Lisa Talbolt, 71, is one of the hapū elders who hopes to live in the new homes.

She lives in one of the old state homes built at Ōrākei but longs for the day when she’ll be able to move into one of the new homes, closer to her 90-year-old mum.

“It’s been a long time coming. It’s about rebuilding and it’s going to keep going.”

“On our own terms”

In 1840, Ngāti Whātua chief Apihai Te Kawau signed the Treaty of Waitangi and gifted land to the Crown to help establish Auckland.

Te Kawau tried to enshrine Takaparawha, now known as Bastion Point, and Ōkahu as non-transferable, but the government and Auckland City Council swept the legislation aside and gradually sold all of the tribe’s land, except the Ōkahu village and marae.

The Crown made many attempts to remove Ngāti Whātua from the site because it wanted to develop it into a park, which it is today. The council used Queen Elizabeth II’s visit in 1952 to destroy the settlement.

The people were evicted and the marae and houses were burnt to the ground. Only the cemetery and the chapel remain.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei’s commercial arm, Whai Rawa, is managing the development. Spokeswoman Anahera Rawiri said the papakāinga is significant because it marks a time of restoration for the pain the iwi has carried over the destruction of Ōkahu.

The new houses will be added to the nine already on the site, close to the marae rebuilt at Ōrākei, above Ōkahu.

Rawiri said generations of families have never come back to the marae because of the trauma over the evictions and fire.

“We’re in a position ourselves to provide dry, warm housing to our people and bring them back,” said Rawiri.

“No one dictates to us what should be on our own land, and we’ve taken the opportunity up ourselves. This is on our own terms, for our people, and we know who the end users are going to be.”

The design of the whare was gifted to the developers by the kaumātua and includes values of kaitiakitanga (guardianship), whanaungatanga (relationships) and manaakitanga (hospitality).

Earthworks commenced during Rākanunui, the full moon phase of the maramataka, the lunar calendar.