Ōtakanini Tōpū comprises whenua and wai rich with centuries of ancestral occupation and use. Tohu of the tūpuna remain present and visible today. By the early 18th Century, the lands which today make up the Tōpū fell within the rohe of Ngāti Whātua. In the early 20th Century the whenua was considered by the Land Court and titles were awarded to a limited number of owners. This ended the traditional model of authority over, and succession of, the whenua.

Between 1909 and 1959 the various blocks were leased out by the Tokerau District Maori Land Board (TDMLB). According to the Maori Land Settlement Act of 1905, the Tokerau District Maori Land Board was able to have Māori land compulsorily vested in it if, in the opinion of the Native Minister, it was not required for occupation by its owners.

When the leases expired in 1959, numerous owners of individual titles opted to incorporate their lands and create a single large property, the Ōtakanini Tōpū. They then had to take out a loan to attempt to restore the land, which had been returned in a deteriorated state after 50 years of external leasehold use. Some of the environmental issues still faced by the Tōpū today, such as erosion of sandy pastureland, can be traced back to poor farming practices and disinterested supervision by the Tokerau District Maori Land Board during those lease years – a legacy inherited by the hundreds of shareholders who now descend from those original owners.

For its shareholders and the wider South Kaipara Ngāti Whātua community, the Tōpū is not only an economic and material resource, but an important living cultural landscape linked to tribal history and identity.

Please read Tanner et al which has been reproduced with permission of the New Zealand Archaeological Association.