Pukekawa

Auckland Domain

Pukekawa is home to the Auckland Domain, the Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, the Wintergardens (a complex of glasshouses and courtyards) and sports and recreational reserves. It has many walking paths providing an escape from the nearby urban centre. The Domain contains all the explosion crater and most of the surrounding tuff ring of the Pukekawa volcano.


The present hill is the remains of the former volcanic cone. It was a useful vantage point for early Māori who settled here. After the inter-tribal musket wars, peace was made between Waikato and Ngāpuhi tribes in 1823. Peace was cemented by the marriage of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero’s brother, Te Kati of Waikato, to Matire Toha of Ngāpuhi. Te Wherowhero (the first Māori king) gave the existing name, Pukekawa (which referred to the sourness of soil) new meaning as, ‘the hill of bitter memories’, to commemorate those who died.


1.
Wiremu (Piri) Te Ranga Poutapu, MBE (Ngāti Koroki) and Allan Nopera (Ngāti Whātua, Te Uri o Hau, Ngāti Kahu)
Pukekaroa Carved Ancestors, 1940s-2017
Photo by Marlaina Key
Auckland Domain, behind Wintergarden, Parnell

These carvings protect a sacred tōtara (native tree) planted in 1940 by Princess/Dame Te Kirihaehae Te Puea Hērangi (Tainui tribe), a central figure in establishing the Kīngitanga movement. The Princess (1883–1952) was the great granddaughter of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero the first Māori King (Waikato, Ngāti Mahuta). The Domain has special significance for the Kīngitanga (the Māori King Movement) as Te Wherowhero once lived there.

The figures in the carvings depict the children of Ranginui and Papatūānuku (the nation’s first parents).

2.
Fred Graham (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura)
Kaitiaki (Guardian), 2004
Photo by Marlaina Key
Auckland Domain, Parnell

Graham’s Kaitiaki (Guardian) sculpture, made of steel plate, is a black hawk looming large over the Domain. The kāhu pōkere (black hawk) is a kaitiaki (guardian) that features in the oral histories of Ngāti Whātua.

In Māori lore, manu (birds) were the tangata whenua (first inhabitants) of the land of Aotearoa (New Zealand). Kaitiaki looks across to a small scoria cone west of the museum, the site of the Pukekaroa Carved Ancestors.

3.
Brett Graham (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura)
Whaowhia, 2007
Photo by Te Rawhitiroa Bosch
Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, Auckland Domain, southern entrance, Parnell

Whaowhia - the two granite urns – one white and one black – represent pātaka mātauranga (knowledge storehouses). They reflect the museum’s role as preserver and protector of the nation’s taonga (cultural treasures).

Each urn is decorated with carvings symbolising objects held in the museum. At night each urn emits a shaft of light to acknowledge the role of the museum as a war memorial and place of learning.

The artist has used layer upon layer of stone to symbolise the museum’s Māori title Paenga Hira, which refers to the Ngāti Whātua practice of marking boundaries with basalt mounds.

aucklandmuseum.com

4.
Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, 1929
Auckland Domain, Parnell | Open 7 days

The Museum is guardian of an outstanding collection of Māori taonga (treasures) with more than 1000 displayed in the Māori galleries: He Taonga Māori (Māori Court) and Te Ao Tūroa (Māori Natural History).

These taonga are the ancestral representations of all the major tribes and provide descendants with tangible links to their ancestors and their histories. They embody spiritual power measured in terms of mana (ancestral authority), tapu (restriction from everyday being) and kōrero (narratives).

The museum’s Māori name translates as Tāmaki (Auckland), the net of Maki. Paenga, to layout ceremonially and a reference to those fallen in battle. Hira means abundant, of consequence.

aucklandmuseum.com