Te Onewa Pa

For the many thousands of motorists that cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge every day, the name of Onewa Road just past Northcote Point is the tiniest clue that this place was once more than a bunch of steel and a motorway.

In fact, the North Shore has always been a haven for migrants, and the entire northern side of the Waitemata was sought after and fought over by Te Kawerau, Ngai Tai, Ngati Whatua, NgaPuhi and Hauraki tribes in pre-European times.

Northcote Point was Te Onewa Pa; the point itself known as Totaratahi (single Totara tree), Onepoto the name of the beach and the other, western beach was called Okawau, (the home of the shag). The Pa was the jewel in the crown of the shore because of access to shellfish, kumara gardens, roots and berries, and great Mako shark fishery. Several Kainga (villages) of the northern Waitemata were supported by the Pa. Many of the tribes involved with the area were present in the 1840s, but somehow the Crown managed to scratch up a deal (part of the Mahurangi purchase) to buy it.

It was then changed to 'Stokes Point' and Maori drifted away. In 1880 the name of the area was changed to 'Northcote Point' and the point turned into a park in 1908. Historic Birkenhead further explains...

Northcote Point, with its proximity to the city, recently became the latest suburb for urban gentrification, with popular TV show "The Block" filming aspiring young things frantically building homes in a race in 2017. The park is still called Stokes Point Reserve, and the Auckland-Birkenhead ferry still leaves from here, but with pedestrian friendly upgrades to the bridge, and ten years industrial noise due of strengthening of the bridge, it was decided something ought to be done to recognise the former Pa and recompense the current residents.

First a new walkway, replacement of a pedestrian bridge, fencing, planting and landscaping were installed, using heritage-sensitive methods like re using post holes. A Pouwhenua of Totara was installed, carved by Reuben Kirkwood of Nga Tai ki Tamaki. The landscaping was by Boffa Miskell. They included poetry on the trestle beams, planted Ponga Ferns, and made a feature of the old fortification ditch which is all that was left of the Pa.

Nevertheless, the Pou seems a solitary thing, and it is underneath a great tangle of steel that is The Auckland Harbour Bridge, which cuts a striking figure from any angle except from below. The reinforcing going on here is that Pakeha, and progress, have cast a shadow on Te Onewa Pa and that the lost Maori is camping under the bridge.

Image Credits: Celia Walker