Thanks to a knowledgeable commenter, Bryan, on Backchat the other night, this map was drawn to our attention. It is most informative.
The text under the map says:
This historical map shows tribal boundaries and the areas that were confiscated from Maori during the 1860s. The blue boundaries have been added in modern times to identify the areas in which the confiscations took place. It notes that Waikato, the domain of the Kangitanga (Maori King movement), had 1,217,437 acres (492,679 hectares) confiscated.
TeAra
Let’s zoom in a bit:
Well, that’s inconvenient!
What does the SOUL protest website have to say about this land?
In 2014 Auckland City, using the Special Housing Areas Act, designated 32 hectares adjacent to the Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve (OSHR) as a special housing area (SHA. This land, known as Puketapapa, was confiscated ‘by proclamation’ under the New Zealand Settlements Act in 1863 as part of the colonial invasion of the Waikato that drove mana whenua of South Auckland from their lands ahead of the settler armies.
SOUL
These protesters may have other valid reasons why they want the land protected:
It is important to understand that this land is a crucial part of one of the last remnants of the archaeologically rich stonefields landscape across Auckland and, as a natural component of the adjacent but legally separate OSHR, it holds the stories of the earliest inhabitants of our country. The OSHR protects the places where the first Maori gardeners lived and worked using the stones and the microclimates they created to grow their Pacific Crops. SHA62 similarly is one of the last surviving places where the land and stone walls used by Maori for growing new crops such as wheat and European vegetables for the Auckland markets prior to 1863, still exists. It is of special significance in that here the ancient and more recent gardens stand next to each other. These places are even rarer than the stonefields were at the time of the creation of the Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve.
SOUL
But, according to history recorded at the time, ‘confiscation’ of Maori land by Pakeha is not a valid reason. Revisionist history might want to claim something else but it seems that the facts are the opposite of what is being claimed by the rent-a-mob shambles in South Auckland.
