Ngāti Haumia ki Paekākāriki — Whenua and History
Whakapapa and arrival on the coast
Ngāti Haumia ki Paekākāriki are mana whenua at Paekākāriki, with whakapapa connections to Ngāti Toa Rangatira and to the Tainui waka traditions of Kāwhia. Local history recorded in partnership with the Farrell whānau traces their descent to Haumia and recounts their movement south with the Ngāti Toa migrations of the 1820s.
Ngāti Haumia people were among the defenders of Kāpiti Island during the Battle of Waiorua in 1823. In the following decade, Ropata Hurumutu established Wainui Pā near the mouth of the Wainui Stream. This settlement became an enduring centre of Ngāti Haumia life at Paekākāriki, shaped by relationships with neighbouring Te Ātiawa and Ngāti Toa communities.
Wainui, land and changing authority
The history of Wainui and the surrounding coastal lands is inseparable from the nineteenth-century transformation of land tenure. Crown purchases, the establishment of reserves, the Native Land Court system and later rating and public-works measures steadily diminished the lands available to Ngāti Haumia families. The Wainui and Whareroa transactions of the 1850s form part of this history.
The story cannot be reduced to a simple change of ownership. Wainui was a living community with homes, ancestors, burial places and responsibilities to whenua. As the railway, roads and settler township expanded, the boundaries between Māori-owned land and the growing town became increasingly contested.
The Miriona block and Queen Elizabeth Park
During the Second World War, American military camps transformed the Paekākāriki district. Land used for wartime purposes later became central to plans for Queen Elizabeth Park. Miriona Utu Mutu Mira (Budge), a descendant of Ropata Hurumutu, resisted the loss of her remaining family holding, which included an urupā and the memory of generations of occupation.
Local research recounts how pressure to sell and restrictions on future family use eventually led to the transfer of most of the Miriona block in the early 1950s. The descendants' accounts preserve the human dimensions of that loss: the relationship between homes, burial places, identity and belonging. The history of the park must be understood alongside the history of the people whose land was incorporated into it.
Continuity and the historical record
Ngāti Haumia descendants have continued to research their whakapapa and whenua, and to advocate for recognition of their relationship with Paekākāriki. The Farrell whānau and local historians have helped make this history more widely accessible through a detailed published account. The histories of Ngāti Haumia, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Te Ātiawa and other groups are interconnected, but each requires its own voice and recognition.
Ngāti Haumia ki Paekākāriki should not be confused with other groups bearing the name Ngāti Haumia in different rohe. This book concerns the Paekākāriki community and its local historical record.