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Mataki-kai-Poinga Precinct

Maori Sites of Te Whanganui a Tara

wellington tara symbol

Kakariki-Hutia Pa
Whetu Kairangi Pa
Te Pou a Amuketi

Mataki-kai-Poinga Precinct

Mataki-kai-Poinga is the site of an ancient pa belonging to Ngäti Kaitangata of Ngäti Ira under the chief Tuahuriri in the north-centre of the Miramar Peninsula ridge with several other pa sites near it. When taken over by Ngai Tahu its chief was said to be Tiotio. Adkin writes that its location was high up on the ridge towards the northern end of Miramar Peninsula. Best located it on the western hill slopes below Mount Crawford but Adkin commented, "its precise location is now doubtful."


Kakariki-Hutia Pa

Location: Eastern terminus of Awa Road
Type of site: A small fortified pa
Known iwi/Hapu connections: Ngäti Ira
Condition : In 1955 it still had good traces of site lying in a little rounded hollow on the crest of a spur. Several artificial ledges for whare were still distinct, also midden debris and charcoal discarded from old oven pits. (1)
site map

"A small hamlet on the Hataitai [Miramar] Peninsula" but it seems to have been a small fortified pa, it takes its name from a Rangitane Ngäti Apa invasion. (2) The defending chief grabbed a couple of plucked but uncooked parakeets which he devoured on his way to battle. During the fighting he encountered and vanquished the attacking chief whose dying words were "Who can withstand the man of the kakariki hutia (plucked parakeets)?" From that time forth, the fortifying property of uncooked food was recognised in the name of the pa. (3)

Sources
1. Adkin, Leslie G., The great harbour of Tara.(Whitcombe & Tombs, 1959), p. 26
2. Elsdon Best, "The Land of Tara", Journal of the Polynesian Society, vols 26-28, p 60
3. Adkin, p 27


Whetu Kairangi Pa

Location: Between Seatoun Heights and Marine Parade, opposite Worser Bay school.
Type of site: Major pa site, fortified, with houses within it.
Known iwi/Hapu connections: Ngai Tara
Condition : Not known.
site map

Whatonga, grandson of Toi, instructed Tara and his younger brother Tautoki ihu nui a Whatonga and Tara in a number of arts and had them build the pa with two named houses Raukawa and Wharerangi. The pa takes its name from the fact its outlook meant its inhabitants saw no persons from other tribes, the stars of the heavens being the only things they had to gaze on at night. It was when the fort was finished that Tara named the harbour after himself. In the 1820s in a waiata of lamentation for her son Kekerengu, the beseiged Ngäti Ira chieftainess Tamairangi linked him with Whetu Kairangi. (1)

The site therefore has direct relationship with Ngai Tara, and also Ngäti Ira.

Sources
1. Best Pt 4 pp l04-5.


Te Pou a Amuketi

Location: Worser Bay, just south of the jetty.
Type of site: Former landmark, post European; previously kainga.
Known iwi/Hapu connections: Te Atiawa
Condition : Not known.
site map

A place on Seatoun Flat, named after Captain John Rodolphus Kent, known to
Mäori as Te Amukete. An officer of the Royal Navy serving the Government of New South Wales, he made the first of several voyages to New Zealand in February 1820 as skipper of the cutter "Mermaid". By 1826 he had visited Wellington to obtain supplies of potatoes and given it the name Port Nicholson, after a British official in Sydney. Kent developed close relations with the Mäori of Mirihiku and Otakou before moving north to marry a daughter of Te Wherowhero, the first Maori King. (1) The pou (pole) stood under the hill to the west of present Seatoun wharf, about halfway along Ferry Rd. A midden indicates that this was a site of a village. (2)

Sources
1. Best, Pt 5 p 173; The Dictionary of Biography of New Zealand Vol 1 p 225; Evison, Harry, Te Wai Pounamu The Greenstone Island, pp 33,34,37
2. Adkin, Leslie G., The great harbour of Tara.(Whitcombe & Tombs, 1959), p. 68

Korero o te Wa I Raraunga I Rauemi I Te Whanganui a Tara I Whakapapa