As this quote states, the domain is adjacent to an area that is both traditionally important to Maori, and is still used by Maori today. The domain itself also contains several important pa and wahi tapu sites. The development and management of the domain naturally impacts on the people of Otawhiwhi, one of the small areas of land remaining in Maori ownership after the Katikati Te Puna purchase.
This report focuses on the history of the administration of the recreation reserve under the Katikati Domain Board and the Department of Lands and Survey. It will be seen that throughout most of that administration, Maori had no involvement in decisions made on the use of the domain and little effort was made to protect the pa and wahi tapu sites. The history of the domain reveals conflicting views on what forms public use of a recreation reserve should take, and the increasing pressures and demands made on reserve land. This land is no longer owned by the Crown. It was vested in the Tauranga County Council.
Background History of Bowentown
The original inhabitants or tangata whenua of the region were Ngamarama. These people are thought to have built the terraced pa Te Kura a Maia. Today the earthworks and shell middens of Te Kura a Maia on the peninsula headland overlooking the northwestern entrance to Tauranga Harbour are still one of the best examples of a traditional Maori coastal fortification (see figure 2).2 The Maori name for this area was Katikati (not to be confused with the site of the current town of Katikati).
According to the Historic Places Trust, the name Te Kura a Maia, when translated to English, means a training ground for young warriors, which is an apt description for a pa which was much fought over:3
Originally, the headland was just terraced, the ditch and bank across the headland being added later, but when the terraces were built, and when the ditch and bank were added is not known. There are many pa around Tauranga but terraced pa like Te Kura a Maia are uncommon, and are possibly an early form.
A pa such as Te Kura a Maia could have held scores of people, although it is unlikely that so many people would have lived on Te Kura a Maia all the time. The terraces would have needed rebuilding every three or four years, store houses for food, tools and weapons, and cooking places with ovens and fireplaces. Fences around the terraces would have provided shelter.
How the pa was originally defended is not known. There was probably a palisade across the headland and it is quite likely that fighting stages, large wooden platforms on tall posts designed to give a height advantage to the occupants, were situated behind the palisade and on some terraces. The ditch and bank are a later form of defence on the pa, and from their location would appear to coincide with a decrease in the size of the defended area.4
2 Janet M. Davidson, ‘The Polynesian Foundation’ in W.H. Oliver & B.R. Williams (eds) The Oxford History of New Zealand, Oxford University Press, Wellington, 1981, p26
3 B.G. McFadgen and A.M. Williams, Pa Sites of the Western Bay of Plenty, Department of Conservation, Wellington, 1991, p 19
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