Media Release Tuesday 3 July 2007

Mana whenua to have a role in management of significant new park in Manukau

Te Akitai o Waiohua are expected to have a major role in the management of one of the Auckland region’s most significant volcanic features, which has been saved from potential development by being purchased for a public park by Manukau City Council.

Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis says he is delighted the council has approved the $6.07million purchase of the Pukaki Lagoon explosion crater located off Pukaki Road in Mangere. He believes the park will become one of Manukau’s most significant public open spaces.

The council has purchased 25ha of privately owned land around the crater rim plus the leasehold interest in perpetuity over 36ha of flat land inside the crater. The purchase was funded from the Cash-in-Lieu of Reserves Account, which contains significant financial contributions paid to the council in lieu of the provision of land for reserve purposes on private sector subdivisions. Money from this account can only be spent on the acquisition of land for public open space, for active or passive recreation, and the development of such land for these purposes.

The interior of the explosion crater was once a tidal lagoon but, some 85 years ago, was drained and converted to pasture. Ownership of the lagoon passed to the Auckland Harbour Board under the 1911 Manukau Harbour Control Act, despite Maori protest at the time. Later the freehold title over the lagoon was transferred to Manukau City Council which, in the 1990s, returned the lagoon to the Pukaki Maori Marae Committee as part of the council’s acknowledgement of the decision by the Waitangi Tribunal on the Manukau claim.

However, while the council was able to return the freehold title of the land to local Pukaki Maori, the perpetually renewable lease over the lagoon land remained in private ownership until the council’s purchase announced today.

Acknowledging the site’s significance to local iwi, Sir Barry says the council will negotiate a co-management agreement for the park with the local Pukaki Maori people.

As well as being one of the most pristine and undisturbed explosion craters remaining in the Auckland volcanic field, and therefore of significant geological and historical importance, the crater is also important to iwi as one of Nga Tapuwae o Mataaoho (the footprints of Mataaoho). Associated with volcanic forces in Maori creation stories, footprints of Mataaoho can be followed across the Auckland isthmus as a series of explosion craters. The Pukaki crater is called Te Pukaki Tapu o Poutukeka (the sacred well spring of Poutukeka). Poutukeka was one of the crew of the Tainui waka and the original ancestor of all 33 generations of mana whenua in this area.

The crater has other significant associations with the Waiohua people as the location of urupa, pa and papakainga.

Sir Barry says he is delighted the council negotiated the purchase of the leasehold interest over the lagoon and the freehold title to the surrounding land. He sees it as a continuation of the council’s role in addressing the findings of the Waitangi Tribunal on the Manukau Claim. He believes a co-management relationship with Ngati Te Akitai will help produce a park significant for its natural and cultural heritage, landscape and recreational values, for all the people of Manukau.

Pukaki Maori Marae Committee spokesperson Maahia Takaanini-Wilson said Te Akitai Waiohua were delighted with the news of the purchase of the Pukaki lands and lease, which were the site of an ancestral pa. “Not only does the purchase continue the council’s acknowledgement of the 1985 Waitangi Tribunal decision on the Manukau Claim, it recognises again the perseverance and commitment of tangata whenua, Te Akitai Waiohua and Tainui, to protecting historic sites.”

For its immediate future, the council proposes to leave the park in its present state. Public access will not be immediately available because of arrangements with the vendor for continued grazing for 12 months.

“Manukau City Council has a very proud record of successful purchases of many outstanding open spaces and will continue to vigorously pursue other potential reserve acquisitions as they arise,” Sir Barry says. “Preservation of sites with significant natural, cultural and recreational values is a vital component of a young and rapidly growing city such as Manukau.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media