The Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour is about having fun discovering the history of Aotearoa New Zealand by finding sites of significance in local communities from early Pacific voyaging and migration, European settlement to present day. The interaction between people, and people and the land have provided a rich history that the GeoTour invites you to explore.
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On 12th June 1848, forty Ngāi Tahu chiefs signed the ‘Kemp Deed’ at Akaroa. The New Zealand Company, acting on behalf of the Crown, purchased just over eight million acres of Te Wai Pounamu (the South Island) from the native people for £2000. The Waitaha area of this purchase would become known as the Canterbury Block less than a year later.
Upon Henry Kemp’s return to Wellington, alarm was instantly raised. Firstly, how did Kemp make and seal the deal so quickly? It soon came to light that he had only stayed on shore for three days and travelled no further than Akaroa. He had showed great impatience and threatened military action to hurry things along. He had taken no maps with him so no boundaries or promised Māori Reserves were marked out. Nothing about this transaction appeared to be legal.
Under the terms of the deed of sale, as well as receiving an undertaking that adequate reserves would be set aside “for their present and future wants” and the provision of schools and hospitals, the Crown promised that all of the Ngāi Tahu mahinga kai areas would be set aside for them. The definition of mahinga kai includes food and other natural resources and the places from where these things are gathered.
Not only did the Crown fail to set aside adequate reserves for Ngāi Tahu (the average area being 10 acres per person), but the Crown also determined that mahinga kai sites were restricted to those areas currently under cultivation as gardens, or the places where there were fixed structures such as eel weirs. As a result, Ngāi Tahu lost ownership and control of, and access to, all of their traditional mahinga kai. The estuary was part of this - it had been used for gathering food for over 600 years.
In future arguments between the Ngāi Tahu and the land courts, great stress was made of how the local iwi welcomed the white settler and could have done no more to help them. They were repaid by broken promises and disrespect. 6359 acres had been promised to the Ngāi Tahu which was mahinga kai – food gathering places and reserves where the iwi could retain their way of living. This amount of land was calculated on the latest Maori census (637) and Kemp was instructed that the land put aside should support future generations of Ngāi Tahu. The census used did not count Māori living in Kaiapoi or Banks Peninsula. It soon became apparent that this information wouldn’t have done any good as Europeans soon drained the plains of its lagoons and swamps (used for fishing and hunting) and the birds and wild pigs that the Māori ate were killed as nothing more than game. The ways of the Ngāi Tahu soon disappeared. Over the ensuing years the tribal authority of Ngāi Tahu was diminished, people were ostracised from their land, connections were fragmented, and language and knowledge suppressed. Not only did Ngāi Tahu lose ownership and control over these mahinga kai, but the activities associated with settlement of the land and the development of pastoral farming resulted in the wholesale destruction of the natural habitat which sustained these resources. Mahinga kai was, and still is, a fundamental part of tribal life, and consequently was a very significant part of the Ngāi Tahu Claim to the Waitangi Tribunal. For the European settlers the estuary was an area of little use - an unproductive wasteland. Māori never accepted this view and actively protested when sewage and stormwaters were discharged into estuaries.
Ōtākaro – Avon River. Ōtākaro meanders its way from a spring source in Avonhead through the city to New Brighton and out to sea via the estuary. Ōpāwaho - Heathcote river. Ōpāwaho meanders out to the estuary at Ferrymead from spring sources in Halswell, Oaklands, Hillmorton and Wigram.
Ōpāwaho historically meandered through extensive wetlands prior to urbanisation. Historic survey maps from the mid-19th century (the so-called 'Black Maps') indicate that the habitat that the river passed through was abundant in flax (harakeke), toetoe, raupo, tutu and ferns and was dotted with ti kouka (cabbage tree). The Ōtākaro had two Māori settlements on its banks in pre-European times.
The river corridor was low-lying and very wet. Over many centuries of using the river as a food source and transport corridor, the iwi of Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe and Ngāi Tahu fostered a close relationship with this resource. The swamp forest around the river provided gathering grounds for water fowl and forest birds. Traps were regularly set for inanga (whitebait), pātiki (flounder), and tuna (eel).
The estuary's official name became Estuary of the Heathcote and Avon Rivers / Ihutai in 1998.
Watch your footing. There are some traps for the unsuspecting in the grass - the bank is giving away.
Sources:
Video - Kemp purchase - the sale of Ngai Tahu land in Te Wai Pounamu
https://ngaitahu.iwi.nz/our_stories/kemps-deed-1848/
https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/ti-kouka-whenua/index/ - many excellent webpages about Christchurch.
To be able to complete this Geotour and receive your special geocoin, remember to take a note of the codeword on the log book of the cache. This will need to be recorded in your passport which can be downloaded from here. If the passport is unavailable for any reason just keep a note of the codeword and try again later.