Newly listed old papakāinga becomes a new papakāinga

WORDS: Niki Partsch and Annemarie Gillies IMAGES: Ejay Gillies

Listed as a wāhi tīpuna in 2021, Puketapu Pā is located in Waimarama, south of Hastings in the Hawke’s Bay and is home to around a thousand people. This significant historic site is now the location of new papakāinga housing for whānau who whakapapa to the land there.

Awāhi tīpuna is defined as a place important to Māori for its ancestral significance and associated cultural and traditional values. Puketapu Pā was a papakāinga (village or home base), a place culturally, spiritually, and environmentally significant for the local hapū and iwi. Being listed as a wāhi tīpuna acknowledges its association and cultural significance to whānau and hapū of Waimarama through well-known tīpuna.

Dr Annemarie Gillies identifies Puketapu Pā as “a place of cultural significance to whānau and hapū of Waimarama. It links the people of the place to the original inhabitants of the area which includes Kupe, Toi, Paikea, Whatonga, Tara and Rangitane, and Kahungunu.”

It is situated approximately in the heart of a system of early settlement kāinga stretching from Te Matau-a-Māui (Cape Kidnappers) to Southern Wairarapa, Te Whānganui a Tara (Wellington), and to Te Tauihu o Te Waka-a-Māui (top of the South Island). The nearby Pouhokio River and surrounding ngahere (forest) together with the many resources from the moana provided an abundance of food during the early days of the original pā. There is archaeological evidence of ovens, fire pits, middens, and storage pits.

Oral testimony from local people and historians indicates that Puketapu Pā was likely utilised as a place to rest when travelling further south to the Rangitane Pā of Hakikino and further along the coast to Kairākau, Pourerere, and Pōrangahau.

This pā site is mostly associated with the Ngāti Kurukuru ancestress Nohongātahi. However, there are other important tīpuna connected to the wāhi including Tamai Awhitia and Ura-ki-te-rangi (the eponymous ancestors for whom two of the hapū of Waimarama are named), other tīpuna include Hikawera of Te Awanga, Rangi-te-uira, Kahu-o-te-rangi and brothers, Tiakitai and Harawira.

The current hapū of WaimaramaNgāti Kurukuru, Ngāti Whakaiti, Ngāti Urakiterangi, and Ngāti Hikatoa, claim their descent from the mix of early inhabitants Ngāti Ira, Ngai Tara, and Rangitāne. Rangitāne held their position in Waimarama for several hundred years before the migrations south of Ngāti Kahungunu.

Pā usually indicates a fortified village, stockade, or fort, so its name is certainly perplexing given Puketapu Pā is not associated with either battles or burial grounds. However, this does make the site suitable for its new development as a modern papakāinga. An Otago archaeological field school led by

Professor Richard Walters excavated some sites prior to the commencement of the new papakāinga. Archaeology students Stella August and Wikitoria (Wiki) Moore who whakapapa to the whenua and to Puketapu Pā took part in the mahi associated with the field school.

Care was taken during development to avoid disturbing further cultural and archaeological sites.

The wider benefits of this listing include whānau and hapū being able to live on the land to which they have a connection, to learn about its history and to become involved in future development and conservation projects. New insights and knowledge will add to the history of this place. The historical narrative will educate and inform current and future generations of the hapū through recognition and acknowledgement of links to wider tribal groups both in the north and south. n

Puketapu has been widely translated as ‘sacred hill’. There are numerous hilltop sites in Aotearoa New Zealand with the name. Puke meaning hill, hillock or mound and tapu meaning ‘restricted’. So, Puketapu references hilltop areas which are not generally suitable for development or common usage due to their significance, usually because of how the site was utilised over time or perhaps an incident that occurred there associated with a death or deaths.