Visiting Otuataua Stonefields on fieldtrip...

Visiting Otuataua Stonefields with my class

One of the neat things about teaching the Cert. in Indigenous Research course is taking my students out on field trips around Auckland and today we went to visit the Otuataua Stonefields historical reserve which is a 5 - 10  min drive from Auckland airport.

The interesting thing about the Stonefields is that although it has been occupied by European settlers back since the 1830s firstly as a missionary station and then after the land confiscation Act of the 1860s, European settlers were given the land to buy for cattle and sheep farming blocks of which many of the early settlers to this day have been remembered via the names of roads in and around the area.

The sad thing about it is that although it is known as one of the last remaining areas in Auckland that shows midden and underground lava caves that show that Maori occupied this land from around 1200 AD, the area around the reserve has now been designated for a Special Housing Area that will contain some 500 new houses with panoramic views, if the housing development is to go ahead which it is expected to do with a corporate development company Fletchers Housing ready to go forge ahead.

Today we were able to meet with Pania Newton who is heading the opposition of this land development with her group S.O.U.L. Save Our Unique Landscape and spearheading the discussion by going over to the UN in New York to bring the plight of the indigenous people of the area to an international audience as well as making the land issues known to local communities and nationally throughout NZ.

So my part in all this is to bring these issues to light with my students but also as a local writer to see what I can do to also support the local community with such issues and hoping to include their writing piece in our upcoming community book with more about that to come...