My blogs

About me

Location	Otara, New Zealand
Introduction	I am a part of the exciting community of Ōtara. The area I work in is named after the Ngai Tai chief, Tara Te Irirangi. Ō-Tara (the place of Tara or territory belonging to Tara). Ōtara is in turn the shortened form of Te Puke Ō Tara, literally‘The Hill of Tara’
Interests	also known, for a time as Smales Mount. Te Puke Ō Tara was one of Ōtara's prominent volcanic cones, and prior to European settlement in the area was the site of a scoria cone Pā. Like most of Auckland, the Ōtara landscape is volcanic in origin and forms a part of what is known as the East Tāmaki volcanic field, with Te Puke Ō Tara and Mātanginui (Greenmount) having been the dominant cones of Ōtara. Mātanginui was also a Pā site, and the areas surrounding both Pā are thought to represent the densest area of pre-European settlement in East Tāmaki, favoured for rich volcanic gardening soils and fresh water springs. The tāngata whenua of Ōtara are the local iwi known as Ngāi Tai (also called Ngāti Tai). Ngāti Tai are said to have originated as a distinct iwi identity on the eastern coastline of Auckland shortly after the Tainui waka called there in about the mid-14th Century. According to Ngāi Tai tradition,
Favorite movies	Te Puke Ō Tara and Ōtara are named after the Ariki of Ngāi Tai known as Tara Te Irirangi, who lived from the late 18th Century until 1852. An earlier name applied to the area was Ngā Kopi Ō Toi ('The Karaka Berries of Toi'), named for a Karaka grove said by tradition to have been brought to Tāmaki from the Chatham Islands and planted in the vicinity of Greenmount by Toi Te Huatahi.
Favorite music	Over time, with the emergence and expansion of later hapū and iwi identities, Ngāti Tai occupying the Ōtara area became closely interlinked by marriages with Te Akitai,
Favorite books	Ngāti Tamaoho and Ngāti Kahu of the Tāmaki Makaurau confederation of tribes known collectively as Te Wai ō Hua, and with the Hauraki peoples of Ngāti Pāoa and Ngāti Tamaterā, among others. The Ngāti Pāoa chieftain Hauauru noted in 1851 that by the mid-1830s Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Tamaterā and Te Akitai had competing interests in Ōtara. While all of these groups hold ancestral relationships to the Ōtara area, Ngāi Tai continue to retain recognised mana whenua status.