Abstract:
How can tikanga Māori weave into Albert Park to reindigenise the tāngata and whenua within the urban
landscape?
Aotearoa is rapidly changing to keep up with a growing
economy and technological change, yet this is not the
customary way in which Māori had lived for centuries
before colonisation. Māori lived iwi-orientated lives,
surrounded by their whānau and undertaking daily activities
as a community.1 Following the Second World War, there
was a growing demand for labour in the cities, and for most
urban Māori theirs was a deliberate migration in search of
work to provide a better life for their whānau.2
This thesis will examine how tikanga Māori, Māori
architecture, and hauora can reindigenise Albert Park. It
will also acknowledge an obligation to, and remediation of
Indigenous history by weaving the fundamentals of Māori
whakapapa and mātauranga into the urban landscape.
Through the processes and understandings of raranga,
tikanga, tukutuku, hauora and mātauranga Māori this thesis
aims to reindigenise the tāngata and whenua of Albert Park.
The park has a profound Māori, colonial, and Victorian
history. In its current state as an imperial park, it is a
monument to the British Crown, colonisation and the
Victorian Era.3 The purpose of this thesis is to expose the
layers of the site and reveal its true histories, restructuring
the landscape to reinstate the essence of the Māori pā
and Military Barracks which once stood here. The main
theoretical approach is raranga, weaving tikanga and
Māori symbolism together whilst infusing the whakapapa
of the whenua in a compelling way. This approach in turn
produces contemporary dimensions more suited to the
current landscape and people of Tāmaki Makaurau.
The completed project is a journey through time on the site
of Albert Park, exposing the layers of Māori and colonial
history of the area. Woven into the site is a new proposition,
Mataora Marae, an urban marae providing tikanga Māoribased
practises to hauora or wellbeing. Based on the
hauora tapa whā model of hinengaro, tinana, wairua and
whānaungatanga, Mataora Marae strives to educate the
community on the benefits of hauora, Māori mātauranga,
tikanga, and tūrangawaewae.