Hubbry Logo
search
logo
2091058

Manurewa

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
Manurewa

Manurewa (Māori pronunciation: [manʉɾɛwa]) is a suburb in South Auckland, New Zealand, located 6 km (3.7 mi) south of Manukau Central, and 26 km (16 mi) southeast of the Auckland City Centre. It is home to the Auckland Botanic Gardens, which receives over a million visitors a year. Manurewa has a high proportion of non-European ethnicities, making it one of the most multi-cultural suburbs in New Zealand. Employment for many is at the many companies of nearby Wiri, Papakura, and at the steel mill at Glenbrook.

The area has been inhabited since at least the 13th century, and has cultural significance for Ngāti Te Ata Waiohua. Manurewa developed as a rural community after the Manurewa railway station opened in 1875, becoming a borough in 1937. The area saw suburban growth in the 1950s and 1960s, and became a shopping hub when Southmall Manurewa opened in 1967.

The name Manurewa is a variant of the Māori word for "kite", manu aute, used by in local Waiohua dialect. The translation "soaring bird" gained popularity in the 1920s among English speakers. The name is a shortened form of Te Manurewa o Tamapahore ("The Drifted-away Kite of Tamapahore"), a name which recalls a story involving Waiohua ancestor Tamapahore. One day the men who lived at Matukutūruru and Matukutūreia decided to fly kites, and Tamapahore's was the kite that flew the highest. His brother Tamapahure caused the chord of Tamapahore's kite to break. Tamapahore left the area in search of his valuable kite, eventually finding it at Whenuakite on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Manurewa is located in South Auckland, inland from the south-eastern Manukau Harbour, north of the Pahurehure Inlet. Manurewa is south of the Puhinui Creek, and north of the Papakura Stream. Manurewa is at the southern border of the Auckland volcanic field. Two volcanoes are located to the north in Wiri: Matukutūreia (also known as McLaughlins Mountain), which erupted an estimated 48,000 years ago, and Matukutūruru (Wiri Mountain), which erupted an estimated 30,000 years ago. Matukutūruru was quarried, primarily by the New Zealand Railways Corporation.

Matukutūreia and Matukutūruru were home to two hilltop , collectively known as Matukurua. The names of the mountains commemorate a story of two chiefs. The chief of Matukutūruru ("the bittern standing at ease") was captured while eel fishing. The chief of Matukutūreia ("the vigilant bittern") saved the pā and the people of Matukutūruru. Over 8,000 hectares of stonefield gardens were tended by Tāmaki Māori peoples on the lower slopes of the volcanoes, where crops such as kūmara and bracken fern root were grown.

The Manurewa area was settled by Ngā Riki, who were one of the three Tāmaki Māori groups who joined together to form the Waiohua in the 17th and 18th-centuries. During this time, the two pā were home to the Ngāi Huatau hapū of Waiohua, settled by Huatau, daughter of Huakaiwaka. The chief Huarangi was based at Matukutūruru with his wife Takawai of Ngāi Tahuhu. After her death, he married Kohe, a high ranking woman from Ngāti Pāoa, a union that was widely disapproved by the hapū. This dissent eventually led to a division in the family, with the children of Takawai settling at Matukutūruru, and Huarangi moving with Kohe to Matukutūreia.

Around the year 1740, a conflict between Ngāti Whātua and Waiohua led to the death of paramount chief Kiwi Tāmaki, who became the main occupants of the Tāmaki isthmus and Māngere to the north. Ngāti Whātua was significantly smaller than the Waiohua confederation and chose to focus life at Onehunga, Māngere and Ōrākei, meaning that Waiohua were able to re-establish a presence in South Auckland.

The Manurewa area has significance for Waiohua iwi, especially Ngāti Te Ata Waiohua, who descent from Te Ata i Rehia, the daughter of Huatau who was born on Matukutūreia, and Te Ākitai Waiohua.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.