South Auckland


South Auckland is one of the major geographical regions of Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. The area is south of the Auckland isthmus, and on the eastern shores of the Manukau Harbour. The area has been populated by Tāmaki Māori since at least the 14th century, and has important archaeological sites, such as the Ōtuataua stonefield gardens at Ihumātao, and Māngere Mountain, a former pā site important to Waiohua tribes.
The area was primarily farmland until the mid-20th century, when the construction of the Auckland Southern Motorway led to major suburban development, and the establishing of Manukau City, which was later amalgamated into Auckland. Large-scale state housing areas were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, which led to significant Urban Māori and Pasifika communities developing in the area. The presence of 165 different ethnicities makes South Auckland one of the most diverse places in New Zealand. It is Auckland's most socio-economically deprived area.

Definition

South Auckland is not a strictly defined area. It primarily refers to the western and central parts of the former Manukau City, which existed between 1989 and 2010, and surrounding areas of Franklin. Major areas of South Auckland include Māngere, Manukau, Manurewa, Ōtāhuhu, Ōtara, Papakura and Papatoetoe. A strict definition sometimes used for South Auckland includes just the Māngere-Ōtāhuhu, Manurewa, Ōtara-Papatoetoe, Papakura local board areas.
The term South Auckland was first used in the 1880s, to refer to areas of the southern Auckland Province, such as Cambridge, Ngāruawāhia, Te Awamutu, or Hamilton. The first references to modern South Auckland come from 1962, in discussions for the creation of Manukau City. The term began developing negative connotations in the 1970s, with non-residents associating the term with deprivation, crime and violence. From 1989, many organisations began using the term Counties Manukau as an alternative way to describe South Auckland.
The name South Auckland is often used imprecisely by the press or politicians, to describe lower socio-economic areas south of the Auckland City Centre. Some areas of the Auckland isthmus occasionally referred to as South Auckland are Onehunga, Penrose, Mount Wellington, and Panmure. Some Howick ward suburbs to the East often get confused by being called South Auckland, including Flat Bush and East Tāmaki. Towns south of Auckland are also often referred to as South Auckland, including Pukekohe and Waiuku, and occasionally some towns in the northern Waikato Region, such as Pōkeno and Tuakau.

Natural history

South Auckland is an area on the eastern shores of the Manukau Harbour, and the upper headwaters of the Tāmaki River. Many features of the Auckland volcanic field are found in South Auckland, such as Māngere Mountain, Matukutūreia and the Pukaki Lagoon. Many of the mountains of South Auckland have been quarried, such as Matukutūruru, Maungataketake and Ōtara Hill. Some of the northern-most features of the older South Auckland volcanic field can be found in the area, such as Pukekiwiriki and the Hūnua Falls.
Both the Manukau Harbour and the Tāmaki River are drowned river valley systems. The Manukau Harbour formed between 3 and 5 million years ago when tectonic forces between the Pacific Plate and Australian Plate uplifted the Waitākere Ranges and subsided the Manukau Harbour. It began as an open bay, eventually forming as a sheltered harbour as the Āwhitu Peninsula developed at the harbour's mouth. Over the last two million years, the harbour has cycled between periods of being a forested river valley and a flooded harbour, depending on changes in the global sea level. The present harbour formed approximately 8,000 years ago, after the Last Glacial Maximum.
Historically, much of inland South Auckland was composed of wetlands. Many areas of remnant native bush are found in South Auckland, such as the taraire forest at Kirk's Bush in Papakura, and areas of the Auckland Botanic Gardens in Manurewa.

History

Early Māori history

The Auckland area was an early location visited by many of the Māori migration canoes, including the Matahourua, Aotea, Mātaatua, Tainui, Tākitimu, Tokomaru, Te Wakatūwhenua and Moekākara waka. Some of the earliest stories about the region involve Te Tō Waka, the portage at Ōtāhuhu, that allowed waka to cross between the east coast and the Manukau Harbour, where only 200 metres of land separated the two. The crossing of the Tainui waka is memorialised in the name of Ngarango Otainui Island in the Māngere Inlet, where the wooden skids used to haul the waka were left after the trip was made, and other waka including the Matahourua, Aotea, Mātaatua and Tokomaru all have traditional stories associated with the portage.
Portages remained important features Tāmaki Māori. In South Auckland, the Waokauri and Pūkaki portages at Papatoetoe was used to avoid Te Tō Waka, controlled by the people who lived at Ōtāhuhu / Mount Richmond. The Papakura portage connected the Manukau Harbour at Papakura in the west to the Wairoa River in the east, likely along the path of the Old Wairoa Road, and Te Pai o Kaiwaka at Waiuku connected the Manukau Harbour to the Waikato River in the south.
Tāmaki Māori peoples settled the eastern coastline of the Manukau Harbour as early as the 14th century. Settlements in the area were based on what resources were available seasonally, such as Manukau Harbour fish and shellfish.
In the 15th century, Tāmaki Māori people created extensive garden sites at Ihumātao, Wiri and the slopes of Māngere Mountain. These garden sites used Polynesian agricultural techniques and traditions, with the stone walls acting acted as boundaries, windbreaks and drainage systems for the crops grown in the area, which included kūmara, hue, taro, uwhi, tī pore and aute. The environment-modifying techniques used in the Ōtuataua Stonefields allowed early Tāmaki Māori to propagate crops which were not suited to a cooler climate.
A number of early Tāmaki Māori iwi and hapū are associated with South Auckland. Ngā Oho was used as a unifying name for Tāmaki Māori who descended from the Tainui and Te Arawa migratory waka. Descendants of Tāhuhunui-o-te-rangi, captain of the Moekākara waka, settled around Ōtāhuhu and adopted the name Ngāi Tāhuhu, while descendants of Tāiki, a Tainui ancestor of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, named the Tāmaki River after himself and settled on the eastern shores of the river alongside the descendants of Huiārangi, including the shores of Te Waiōtara. Over time, Ngā Riki emerged as a group who settled between Ōtāhuhu and Papakura, and Ngā Oho was used to describe the people who lived around Papakura.
Many of the volcanic features of South Auckland became fortified pā sites for Tāmaki Māori, notably Māngere Mountain, Matukutūruru, Matukutūreia and Pukekiwiriki. There are few pā sites inland from the coasts, due to the flat land being unsuitable for fortified sites. The pā is known by the name Te Pā-o-te-tū-tahi-atu, a name that describes the pā as temporary, due to the surrounding flat landscape not being ideal for fortifications.
In the early 17th century, the area became a part of the rohe of Te Kawerau ā Maki.

Waiohua

In the 17th century, three major tribes of Tāmaki Makaurau, Ngā Iwi, Ngā Oho and Ngā Riki, joined to form the Waiohua under the rangatira Huakaiwaka. The union lasted for three generations, and was centred around the pā of Maungawhau and later Maungakiekie on the Auckland isthmus. Other Tāmaki Māori groups such as Ngāi Tāhuhu were considered either allies of Waiohua, or hapū within the union.
Māngere Mountain / Te Pane-o-Mataaho / Te Ara Pueru was a major pā for the Waiohua, a confederacy of Tāmaki Māori iwi. The mountain complex may have been home to thousands of people, with the mountain acting as a central place for rua. Paramount chief Kiwi Tāmaki stayed at Māngere seasonally, when it was the time of year to hunt sharks in the Manukau Harbour. To the south, the twin peaks of Matukutūreia and Matukutūruru were home to the Ngāi Huatau hapū of Waiohua, settled by Huatau, daughter of Huakaiwaka.
Around the year 1740, a conflict between Ngāti Whātua and Waiohua led to the death of paramount chief Kiwi Tāmaki, who became the major occupants of the Tāmaki isthmus and Māngere. Ngāti Whātua was significantly smaller than the Waiohua confederation and chose to focus life at Onehunga, Māngere and Ōrākei. Gradually, the Waiohua people who had sought refuge with their Waikato Tainui relatives to the south, re-established in the South Auckland area, mainly in a disbursed circuit around the Manukau Harbour. During this time, the tribal identities of Te Ākitai Waiohua, Ngāti Tamaoho and Ngāti Te Ata Waiohua developed. Ngāti Whātua people who remained in the area and interwed with Waiohua developed into the modern iwi Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. By the 19th century, most Tāmaki Māori peoples moved away from fortified pā and favoured kāinga closer to resources and transport routes.
In the 1820s, the threat of Ngāpuhi war parties from the north during the Musket Wars caused most of the Tāmaki Makaurau area to become deserted. Ngāti Whatua and Waiohua relocated to the Waikato under the protection of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero. A peace accord between Ngāpuhi and Waikato Tainui was reached through the marriage of Matire Toha, daughter of Ngāpuhi chief Rewa was married to Kati Takiwaru, the younger brother of Tainui chief Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, who settled together on the slopes of Māngere Mountain. Ngāti Whātua returned to the Māngere-Onehunga area by the mid-1830s, re-establishing a pā on Māngere Mountain called Whakarongo. During the 1840s, Waiohua descendant tribes returned to their papakāinga at Ihumātao, Pūkaki, Papahīnau, Waimāhia and Te Aparangi. Māngere-Onehunga was the main residence of Auckland-based Ngāti Whātua until the 1840s.