Abstract:
This work aims to find and define tikanga Māori in the archaeology of early gardens on Moturua Island in the Bay of Islands, Northland. These garden sites are in Opunga and Mangahawea Bays and have been archaeologically investigated in the past. They are defined by soil modifications, slope drains and features that represent former planting mounds (puke). A model is applied to the soil modifications and garden organisation at the sites. This model is based upon the practical and ritual tikanga aspects, that were inherent to the cultivation process. The practical reflects how people reacted and worked within their environment which influenced tikanga, and the ritual is based upon the practice of the values and principles of tikanga. An environmental reconstruction of the paleoclimate, landscape and natural soils is necessary to understand how gardens operated within their location. The values and principles of tapu mauri, and kaitakitanga are combined with the environmental reconstruction and ethnographic accounts to find tikanga. The study indicated that environmental tikanga was prevalent in soil modifications and garden organisation of the sites, and values and principles were only prevalent within garden organisation. Upon comparison differences were found between the soil modifications that may be representative of garden techniques by separate whānau or hapū groups. The use of tikanga to interpret archaeological garden sites could help to explain the variability that is seen in across sites in New Zealand. This requires an approach that reflects how Māori viewed the world, which was practiced as tikanga. It is shown that this approach would have to consider the environment that the gardens operated and the social values that were entwined within this environment.
