Ōtuataua Stonefields

The volcanic cone of Ōtuataua once reached  64 metres (210 feet) above sea level. Its present status is the result of extensive quarrying exploitation that began in the nineteen fifties. Once it acted as a natural fortification for the first Māori pā on the Ihumātao peninsula.

The Ōtuataua Stonefields, now a historic reserve on the edge of the Manukau Harbour, is where the Tainui waka arrived more than 800 years ago. The first settlers of Auckland/Tamaki Makaurau were Te Waiōhua and Te Ahiwaru, and their descendants farmed the rich volcanic soil, and built pā on the volcanic cones.

The legacy of colonialism is an acceptance that land is to be owned and history is to be forgotten. Māori collective memory, however, remembers both the grievance and the value of land as a provider, an ancestor and a constant that will remain long after we have gone. Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua—as man disappears from sight, the land remains.