Akoako

30/10/2022

Lost Village of Mararewa

21/10/2022

Let's remember what this Labour Weekend is all about - this man Samuel Duncan Parnell - and his vision - from 1840 - on Petone beach!! And to think that his grave is still hidden among lots of graves in the old Bolton Street Cemetery.

29/09/2022

Another interesting find out in Motueka.

06/09/2022

More from our historian in the Nelson/Tasman area

25/03/2022

Here we go again, dont some Councils ever learn? And haven't we heard about the Fishers before in a similar situation??

A north Auckland iwi say developers of a luxuty lodge want to lock them out of the urupā where generations of ancestors are buried.

13/03/2022

This will not be the only place in our country where this has happened.

A bid is being made to get a plaque erected in memory of thousands of impoverished people whose remains were re-buried in unmarked graves at a Wellington cemetery in the mid-1900s because their plots hadn't been paid for.

14/02/2022

Too many Councils without proper Heritage/Historical considerations - only interested in appeasing developers for the almighty dollar that they can gain!!

Christchurch heritage campaigners are shocked at plans to demolish 103-year-old war memorial building. They want the city council to revoke the decision.

28/01/2022

Despicable and the usual softly softly approach from HeritageNZ has not helped.
When will HNZ take a much more proactive stance on this sort of Historical Issue?

Even after contracting company J Swap learned of a slip that had destroyed part of an historically significant pā site, it kept blasting.

20/01/2022

Great news for local history - look forward to the result

Rangitāne o Wairau is putting $25,000 worth of funding from Heritage New Zealand toward a digital resource to connect whānau with their history.

07/01/2022

Another interesting local history story from the top of the south.

18/12/2021

Interesting development

Wellington has buried hundreds of kilometres of natural streams in underground pipes. But what if we brought them back to the surface?

10/12/2021

Something we at Akoako have been saying all along - Maybe it’s time to break away from our obsession with Euro-centric "primary research".

French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville made the treacherous passage in 1827, but there's another side to the story.

06/12/2021

A powerful, but essential, read.

"The New Zealand Wars have left a huge legacy. Once you know these histories, you’ve opened the box of memories and you can’t ever unknow them." — Professor Joanna Kidman.

29/11/2021

Took them longer enough!! But "pause' is not good enough - it just means they will go through with it after they think we've all calmed down!!

Plans to export 600,000 books to an overseas-based online archive have been shelved after criticism from authors, publishers and copyright holders.

18/11/2021

The Third Mystery from St. John's Wakefield - interesting

10/11/2021

An amazing Banner and an amazing story - trade union history is one of our truly neglected histories.

The Federated Seamen’s Union was one of New Zealand’s most influential trade unions in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This banner, painted for the union’s centenary in 1979, depicts some of the technological changes in shipping during the previous ...

02/11/2021

More interesting history from the Nelson area that's not generally talked about!

A dawn blessing on Parihaka Day, November 5, will commemorate the invasion of Parihaka and Nelson's connection.

28/10/2021

The second Mystery at St. John's Church in Wakefield. A bit more straight forward - perhaps?

11/10/2021

One of the interesting histories associated with St. John's Wakefield.

28/09/2021

A must read

Nelsons 8 Tribes

Nelson’s eight tribes
Māori know the northern South Island as Te Tau Ihu (the prow) of the canoe of the demigod Māui. There are eight mutually recognised tribes in the Nelson–Marlborough region – Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Apa and Rangitāne (Kurahaupō tribes), Ngāti Toarangatira, Ngāti Koata and Ngāti Rārua (Tainui tribes), and Ngāti Tama and Te Āti Awa (Taranaki tribes). For Māori the region’s current boundary has little relevance – historically they traded, settled and interacted in an area that included coastal Nelson–Marlborough and across Cook Strait to the North Island.

Earlier tribes

Nelson’s Māori history is marked by a series of tribes arriving, mainly from the North Island, and ousting those already in residence (who had usually ousted someone else). Early tribes included Rapuwai, Waitaha, Ngāti Wairangi, Hāwea and Ngāti Māmoe.

Ngāi Tara occupied the Waimea area from about 1550, and spread out from there before being displaced by Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri (originally from Taupō) in the early 1600s. Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri dominated for two centuries. They, too, were ousted in the late 1790s by surrounding tribes, including Ngāi Tahu from the West Coast, Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne from eastern Nelson–Marlborough, and Ngāti Apa, who were assisted by people from the Rangitīkei and Kāpiti areas (Kurahaupō tribes).

The Kurahaupō tribes were in turn overwhelmed in 1828 by Te Rauparaha’s confederation – Ngāti Tama and Te Āti Awa from Taranaki, and Tainui tribes Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Koata and Ngāti Rārua.

Settlements and lifestyle
Radiocarbon dating shows that Māori have been in the Nelson region since the 1300s. Early settlements along the Golden Bay shores include Tata Beach, Ligar Bay, Pōhara, Pākawau and Pūponga. Archaeologists have recorded around 300 Māori occupation sites in Golden Bay, including pā sites, gardens, fishing settlements, urupā (burial sites), kōiwi (human remains) and middens (rubbish dumps). People lived a mobile lifestyle, centred on seasonal fishing, gathering and horticulture. Māori had extensive kūmara (sweet potato) plantations on the Waimea Plains, where they added gravel, sand and wood ash to soils – probably to improve drainage and warm the soil.

Early contact
Golden Bay is the site of the first recorded contact between Māori and Pākehā. Four crew members from Dutch explorer Abel Tasman’s ships were killed by Māori near Separation Point, at the eastern end of Golden Bay, in December 1642. In 1827 the French explorer Dumont d'Urville spent time in Tasman Bay, where he met Māori, probably Ngāti Kuia and Ngāti Apa. The 1820s brought an influx of European sealers, whalers and associated traders to the shores of Cook Strait. Kūmara, potatoes and corn were traded at whaling stations, where Māori also worked as builders and crewed on whaleboats.

Land purchases and conflict
From 1839 to 1842 the New Zealand Company negotiated with some Māori to establish the Nelson settlement in Whakatū (Tasman Bay) and Taitapu (Golden Bay). The lack of flat land caused Nelson settlers looking for grazing land to survey the Wairau valley. Te Rauparaha objected. The New Zealand Company believed they had bought the land, but Te Rauparaha considered they had merely acknowledged his mana over and ownership of it. On 17 June 1843 there was a clash at Tuamarina, Marlborough, in which 22 settlers (including Captain Arthur Wakefield) and at least four Ngāti Toa were killed. This became known as the Wairau affray. After this Church Hill, at the head of Trafalgar Street in Nelson, was fortified as a defence against possible attacks from Māori. Further land was acquired from Māori by the Crown between 1853 and 1860.

In 2008 the Waitangi Tribunal ruled that the Crown had breached the Treaty of Waitangi, including by failing to set aside ‘Native Tenths Reserves’ (which reserved one-tenth of land sold for Māori). In 2014 the Te Tau Ihu Treaty settlement legislation was passed.

https://teara.govt.nz/en/nelson-region/page-4

25/09/2021

The oldest Church in the South Island.

20/09/2021

We should all do this

17/07/2021

17/07/2021

An excellent read

OPINION: I can already feel the defensively-minded scrabbling together the usual case for avoiding this uncomfortable history

23/06/2021

This is what happens when the local Council doesn't give a fig for its own History!!

The 160-year-old cottage has been lifted from the spot where it's stood since the 1850s, and will be restored.

06/06/2021

Oh dear, I'm sure the Marlborough District Council can do better than this.

Marlborough's museum lets in ants, reaches “very hot” temperatures, and could be a “death trap” in an earthquake, the trust that runs it says.

04/06/2021

I'm sure there are more than five, just ignore the "McNeil" touristy thing and its very interesting.

Aotearoa's most spiritually significant landmarks are awe-inspiring whatever your beliefs. Every Kiwi should visit at least once.

31/05/2021

Some interesting thoughts here

An historian involved in shaping the draft history curriculum for schools explains it is not just what is being taught but how students will learn to judge the narratives of history that they e

28/05/2021

Here's something to keep you warm this weekend - 2020 wasnt so bad after all!!

If you think 2018 is bad, this new research will prove that things could be much worse on planet Earth.

27/05/2021

Cemeteries are places of forgotten or lost memories. Sad but true. Bolton St Cemetery is just as bad.

Cemeteries are places of memory and meaning, but how much we remember is shaped by which stories are still recounted.

16/05/2021

At last some traction on this complex issue

The memorial makes no mention of the Māori killed in the 1846 Battle of Boulcott's Farm

01/05/2021

Fascinating stuff, esp. the map

Cutting-edge computer modelling has generated an intricate network of routes used by Aboriginal tribes to cross Australia when it was connected to Papua New Guinea about 10,000 years ago.

24/04/2021

A very interesting article but it still has elements of a colonial academic attitude eg - only now listening to oral history? Also the suggestion that kumara were transported down to this area has a nasty colonial taste (sorry about the pun) in that the locals could not possibly grow kumara because it was 200 km south of the "accepted limit" - european academic "accepted limit" at that!! At least it's a start to a more comprehensive and more accepting history.

Confirmation the pits were used for kūmara storage also ties in with local Māori oral history and tradition.

22/04/2021

Worth a read

OPINION: Imagine this. It's a lovely sunny day in Auckland on April 25, 1915. A large Muslim army, who claim they have God on their side, is trying to force its way ashore.

22/04/2021

Now this is an interesting revelation.

The acknowledgement by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission comes after an inquiry found Commonwealth casualties were remembered unequally in official cemeteries.

20/04/2021

20/04/2021

Worth a visit, especially the Tapawera Historical Society's WW1 soldier biographies.