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This is a very slightly edited version of an article that appeared in the very first edition of Southern Bays in 2005. Anthony Powell reviews and briefly summarises literature about the earliest settlement of our area. There is much more to be written and discovered about the successive waves of people who lived in and used the resources of our area before it was settled by Pākehā, including Ngāi Tara, Ngāti Ira, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Toa Rangatira and Te Atiawa. The Society is actively working towards a greater understanding of Māori history and welcomes all information to support those wanting to understand the past and recognize mātauranga Māori in the present.
In order to find out about the earliest inhabitants of the Wellington south coast we have to rely on both archaeological evidence and oral history. The former gives us details of the people’s daily lives and activities, the type of food they ate, the type of dwellings they lived in and their longevity. We get no information, however, about individuals or groups. For this we have to rely on the oral histories of the different iwi.
From the beginning of the nineteenth century this oral history is supplemented by the observations of the early European settlers and missionaries and the evidence of land court hearings from the late nineteenth century. Also, people like Elsdon Best collected extensive oral histories at the beginning of the twentieth century, many of which are available in the publications of the Polynesian Society.
Wellington’s south coast was never extensively settled in pre-European times although Taputeranga played an important part in the turbulent events of the 1820s and 1830s. Furthermore, extensive human occupation of the region since the earliest European times has severely confused the archaeological evidence. For this reason we have to study the archaeology of neighbouring regions and from this evidence try to form a picture of the early inhabitants of the south coast.
The current opinion among archaeologists is that New Zealand was settled by a number of separate migrations that landed in different parts of the country. This settlement would have begun no earlier than the second half of the thirteenth century. In order to gain any information about those early settlers, we have to rely on evidence from excavations carried out in surrounding nearby areas, especially Palliser Bay in the Wairarapa, Makara Beach, Paremata and Kāpiti. From the evidence of those areas we can try to form a picture of the people who inhabited the Wellington area before the Europeans arrived. Of those places the most extensive archaeological research was carried out at Palliser Bay and thus we shall begin with that area.
A group of communities settled along the coastal strip of Palliser Bay in the Wairarapa. Some locations appear to have been continuously settled, while others appeared to have functioned as either summer or winter quarters. A small amount of offshor fishing was practised as well as collecting fish and shellfish fron the intertidal platform. The land between the sea and the foothill was extensively cultivated. The main crops were kūmara and gourds. Some sea mammals were hunted. This included dolphins (aihe), fur seals (kēkeno) and whales (tohorā) - the latter obviously when they became stranded on the beach. They did not, however make up the major part of the people’s diet.
At Makara beach a number of ovens were excavated. Charcoal from one oven was dated by radiocarbon to between 985AD and 1155AD, which may have been due to the burning of old wood as this predates the earliest settlements by 100 years. Charcoal from another oven, however, dates to 500 years later. The presence of moa bones indicates the site was occupied during the earliest phases of human occupation. Further north at Paremata another site has also yielded a large number of bird remains - including moa bones. Again fishing was an important occupation for the inhabitants of this site and their diet also included dogs and seals. On the Kāpiti coast a number of sites have been discovered but only one of them, south of Paekākāriki, has been systematically excavated. Although not radiocarbon dated, the site could be as old as the Palliser Bay sites. This site has yielded a large number of bird remains, including several species of moa.
Recent research has indicated that the region was struck by two closely spaced earthquake-induced tsunami in the 15th century. There are indications that the settlements in the Wairarapa were abandoned around this time and most likely as a result of these catastrophes. If there were any settlements on the south coast of Wellington at that time they would have been abandoned for the same reason.
The South Coast
The South Coast
The sites on the south coast have been catalogued in Ngā Wāhi Taonga o Te Whanganui a Tara, published by the Wellington City Council. All the maps in this article are from that publication.
Ōwhiro
Ōwhiro
One of those sites is to the west of Happy Valley Road, north of the bridge, marked on the map as M79. A survey in 1961 found signs of an oven area, terracing and pits in the vicinity. The other site is to the east of the bay, south of Robertson St. This consists of a series of terraces. Although both sites are eroded now, we have a description of them from Elsdon Best when they were in better condition. Following is his description of them.
Ōwhiro: This has been another much-favoured place of residence, and two middens were in evidence until lately. Here a number of small implements have been found, including the smallest and most interesting greenstone graver known. As late as 1915 a number of interesting relics have been found here, many stone knives and flakes bearing the mark of percussion, worked bones and a [grinder for ochre] etc. A village site, with its debris, is on the hill on the eastern side of Ōwhiro Road, with its midden below. On the western side talus midden shows that the spur above was occupied. The flat on the western side of the road, north of the bridge has probably been cultivated as food storage pits are, or were, in evidence near the creek
Many of the items that Best states were collected from Ōwhiro Bay have found their way into the collections of the Dominion Museum and are, therefore, currently in the collections of Te Papa. Unfortunately those artefacts were collected while archaeology was still in its infancy, and thus any further information that they could give us on the prehistoric inhabitants of the bay is lost.
Peter Beckett, an amateur archaeologist and a resident of Island Bay, in Some Notes on the Western Wellington Cook Strait Coast 1888-1913 referred to the same area in somewhat more detail:
“The middens on the shore of the bay were not built over until years after those at Island Bay and could be inspected until 1913, when this writer moved away from the district. A large midden occupied the centre of the bay on the gravely flat where many artefacts were found. On the eastern side a small midden uncovered by sand carriers [quarry workers- Ed] was rich in small carving tools. On the western side a small talus midden existed [A bulb-shaped pit – Ed]. Greenstone had been worked at this site, several fragments of this stone being recovered. The parts of two fish hooks of unusual design and apparently great age, were also recovered at the foot of the slope. A small gully leading east, now Severn St., connecting with Island Bay, showed signs that kūmara was grown here as there was much gravel in some parts of the soil.
To the above account he adds the following sad addendum:
“Between 1880 and 1890, Messrs T & M Bird erected a large amount of fencing for the Happy Valley estate on the larger western branch mentioned above. While splitting posts in the bush they found an almost complete canoe at a place about two miles from the sea. This was cut up for fencing material. The writer saw some of this material in 1904 still showing the adzing and curve of the old canoe"
Island Bay
Island Bay
Moving around the coast to Island Bay, Elsdon Best has this to say about the sites in that area:
“Island Bay: Prior to European settlement traces of native occupation were discernible all round the bay, on the flat and the hills on both sides; it appears to have been a favoured place of residence. A number of stone implements have been found here, some of which are in Mr Beckett ’s collection. Old ovens and midden refuse of shell, bone and stone, including human bones, have also been seen in the past. Small terraced hut sites are seen at Uruhau, the high hill on the eastern side of the flat, on the hillock above Liffey Street and on the central one; at Milne Terrace and on the hill at High Street. The terraced knoll above Cliff House may have been surrounded by a stockade. The island also retains impressions of man’s handiwork, both on the central butte or hillock, and below it, where the piled up stones possibly surrounded huts with sunken floors. On the eastern side of the Tawatawa range, further north, a spur jutting out from Vogeltown may also have been occupied. Part of a broken patu (a short stone weapon) found on the island is probably a relic of some old time fight”.
Catalogued by Ngā Wāhi Taonga O Te Whanganui a Tara as M82 is a site close to Derwent Street. Further along on the seaward side of the Esplanade was another site which has now disappeared. Both of those sites are named Te Māpunga, and may have been part of a village. Adkin states the name was sometimes given for the bay itself'. He does not provide an explanation for the name. The two sites may be part of the midden referred to by Beckett in his description of the bay. This is how he describes it:
“The midden on the western side of the beach occupied the mouth of a small gully which emptied a tiny stream on the beach. The midden covered half an acre on the south side of this. Having a loose sandy surface it was easy to inspect and yielded many artefacts until it was built over".
As testified by Beckett this area of the bay was built over in the early part of the twentieth century and no trace remains of it today. Neither site has a reference in the NZAA listings, while both of their locations have been only tentatively assigned. Without further evidence we don’t know if the two or their Ōwhiro Bay equivalents sites predate or postdate the tsunami inundations.
The site Motuhaku pā is only tentatively located in the above plan as its original site is built over. Adkin describes it as follows:
“A kāinga or pā ‘at or near Island Bay’ in occupation at the time of the Muaupoko reprisal raid on Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Motukairangi. At that time Tara, the founder of Te Whetukairangi was dead and his son, Te Wakanui was paramount chief of Ngai Tara. Motu-haku is recorded as one of the several centres of occupation marked by rising plumes of smoke from cooking fires, seen by the Muaupoko taua as it crossed Te Wharau ridge above Kaiwharawhara”.
We can be on safer ground regarding the location of Uruhau Pā than with the other three sites. Beckett describes it as follows:
“Ngati Tara built a stockade named Uruhau (place of the winds), which together with the pā at Wai Hirare at Jerningham and Akatarewa on the crest of the ridge south of Mt. Victoria, formed a screen of outposts covering the approach to Whetu-kairangi, the Ngati Tara stronghold on Miramar. A Muaupoko raiding party, as a prelude to an attack on Whetu-kairangi, is said to have surrounded Uruhau but were beaten off. The site of Uruhau was inspected in 1900. No trace of the stockade could be found. A short deep trench on the point which afforded a wider view of the coast was the only remaining part of the defences. This trench covered the head of a faintly discernable zig-zag track up the cliff face. Excavation of the trench yielded only ashes and charcoal.
Adkin tells us that the chief was Pakau and the principal house of the pā was named Te Maihoa. He also states that in a visit to the site in 1956 the terracing for whare sites was still undisturbed! Both Beckett and Elsdon Best refer to both Motu-haku and Uruhau being involved in an attack by the Muaupoko where the latter were repelled. These accounts were written at a time when tribal relations and movements in the Wellington region were poorly understood and thus we rely on the more recent work of J.M. McEwen regarding this raid on the settlements in Island Bay.
Around 1575 a Ngati Tara chief, Pakau, was living at Uruhau Pa on the eastern hills at Island Bay. In their fight with the Muaupoko iwi the Ngati Rangi, allies of Ngati Tara captured a woman named Hineroa and her three children, whom they gave as payment to Pakau. Pakau offered the captives as food to Rangikaikiore, another Ngati Tara chief who lived at Waihirere pā above Point Jenningham. The latter, however, took pity on the captives and released them. In retaliation for these attacks the Muaupoko assembled a force to attack Ngati Tara. They assembled at Papakowhai and marched on Uruhau. Rangikaikiore’s aunt had a premonition of this attack and warned her nephew. The pā at Uruhau was abandoned unknown to the enemy, one part of whom took up position on the beach and another on the ridge. As it became light Rangikaikiore and Pakau charged the enemy from different sides and scattered them. Ngati Tara then moved their forces to Whetukairangi in Miramar. Further attempts by the enemy to take the pa failed and Ngati Tara were subsequently able to scatter them'.
Houghton Bay
Houghton Bay
Houghton Bay is not as favoured with sites as its two neighbouring bays to the west. Best writes of it as follows:
“Haewai or Houghton Bay. Here we see that no suitable sites were available near the beach, but signs of occupation were formerly observed by the streamlet at the head of the bay. On the hills above, however, a number of old hut sites are still in evidence. On the western slope of the ridge that separates Houghton Bay from Lyall Bay, near the point known as Te Rae-kaihau, are a number of small terraces on a small spur offshoot above Houghton Bay. On the steep slopes on the western side of the bay similar sites are seen. In all cases these terraced hut sites would be wider when occupied than they are now, owing to several causes. The only other reference we have to it is that the bodies of two Muaupoko chiefs who were killed on the raid on Uruhau pa were cremated here’.
A brief conclusion
A brief conclusion
By comparing the information that we have from Makara, Paremata, Kapiti and especially from Palliser Bay we can attempt to sketch an impression of the earliest occupation and of the occupants of the south coast.
By 1250 or 1300 people would at least have explored the region, and some settlement would have occurred, at least on a seasonal basis. The people would have led a life style similar to their neighbours north and south, although the local geography would have dictated the prevalence or otherwise of particular activities. These activities would have varied with the seasons. They would have included fishing, both foreshore and deep sea. Sea mammals would have been occasionally eaten. Birds would have been caught and kūmara and gourds cultivated in gardens. Food would have been preserved and stored in pits or raised platforms. Shellfish would have been dried and birds and rats would be preserved in fat. The population would never have been very large. Intertribal communication and commerce would have been carried out by canoes. From their Wairarapa counterparts we may presume that people would have led healthy active lives in their youth but once they had reached forty, old age would have begun to set in, and very few would have lived past fifty”. '
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