Central Wellington’s Kumutoto Recognised As Wāhi Tūpuna

By Niki Partsch

A river with rich connections to tangata whenua, and which nurtured the establishment of the city of Wellington, is part of a wāhi tūpuna newly listed by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

Kumutoto Pā was established at the mouth of the Kumutoto Awa (stream) when Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, and Te Atiawa settled in the central Te Whanganui-a-Tara harbour in the early 1800s.

Over several decades, this fishing village and centre of early flax trade grew into a city that would later become the nation's capital.

A wāhi tūpuna is defined as ‘a place important to Māori for its ancestral significance and associated cultural and traditional values’. The extent of the Kumutoto wāhi tūpuna is a diminutive portion of a significant Māori occupation.

The old mouth of the river was located approximately where Woodward Street and Lambton Quay now meet. Taranaki tūpuna including notable ancestors Wiremu Piti Pomare (Ngāti Mutunga), Ngātata-i-te-rangi, and Wiremu Tako Ngātata (Ngāti Te Whiti, Te Atiawa) lived in the Kumutoto papakāinga and surrounding areas.

The Kumutoto Pā gardens and cultivations were located near the source of the Kumutoto Awa on Pukehinau Ridge, in the area now occupied by Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn Park and the Wellington Botanic Garden.

The urupā (burial grounds) of the people of Kumutoto Pā, Pipitea Pā and other settlements was situated where the Bolton Street Cemetery is today.

Located within Kumutoto Forest in Wellington’s Town Belt, the newly listed Kumutoto Wāhi Tūpuna features the only section of the original Kumutoto Awa, an important waterway for the ancestors of Ngāti Mutunga and Te Atiawa that still flows its natural course.

The name Kumutoto is linked to traditional birthing practices, and the awa played a central role in Māori life during their early settlement of Wellington, a tangible living link connecting the gardens, urupā and papakāinga.

Nothing remains of the cultivations and village today, but the Kumutoto Forest is part of the City to Sea walkway and the newly recognised Kumutoto Wāhi Tūpuna is just a few steps from busy Salamanca Road into the meditative hush of water, trees and birdlife.

Read the wāhi tūpuna List report by Dr Dennis Ngawhare Kaiwhakatere Kaupapa Māori at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

Read the story in Heritage this Month

https://www.heritage.org.nz/news/stories/new-to-the-list-central-wellington-s-kumutoto-recognised-as-wahi-tupuna

Read the full report under ‘Recent listings and reviews’

https://www.heritage.org.nz/places#thelist

Read more in Explore the List

https://www.heritage.org.nz/list-details/9078/Kumutoto

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