Ōwairaka / Mount Albert, also known as Te Ahi-kā-a-Rakataura, is a volcanic peak and Tūpuna Maunga (ancestral mountain) which dominates the landscape of the Owairaka and Mount Albert suburbs of Auckland.
Etymology
The main Māori name of the peak is Ōwairaka, which means 'Place of Wairaka'. Wairaka was the daughter of Toroa, the commander of one of the great voyaging canoes, Mātaatua. Wairaka is renowned for naming Whakatāne, a town in the Eastern Bay of Plenty where she saved the waka from drifting out to sea. She is depicted in the Statue of Wairaka located at Whakatāne Heads. Wairaka subsequently moved to Tāmaki Makaurau to avoid an arranged marriage and set up her own pā at Ōwairaka.
The other Māori name, , means 'the long burning fires of Rakataura', referring to its continuous occupation by the Tainui explorer Rakatāura (also known as Hape).
One of the earliest names Tāmaki Māori gave to the volcano was Te Puke o Ruarangi (The Hill of Ruarangi). A traditional story involves Ruarangi, a chief of the supernatural Patupaiarehe people, escaping a siege on Owairaka / Mount Albert through lava tunnels and emerging at Western Springs Te Wai Ōrea.
The mountain was given the English name, Mount Albert, after Queen Victoria's consort, Prince Albert, following a petition in 1866 to the Superintendent of Auckland Province.
None of the three names are official. In 2014, the Tāmaki Collective agreed that both Ōwairaka and Te Ahi-kā-a-Rakataura reflected the historical association of local Māori with this site. Of the three, Ōwairaka is the most commonly used name.
Auckland Council and the Tūpuna Maunga Authority refer to the site as Ōwairaka / Te Ahi-kā-a-Rakataura / Mount Albert. It is commonly known by the dual name Ōwairaka / Mount Albert.
In January 2020, historian Pita Tūrei disputed the historical accuracy of Ōwairaka being named after Wairaka, claiming that the name is instead a shortening of , a name for the wetlands of the Oakley Creek.
Geography and history
The peak, in parkland at the southern end of the suburb, is in height, and is one of about 53 extinct cones across the city of Auckland, all of which are part of the Auckland volcanic field.
The volcano erupted around 120,000 years ago. The peak was formerly 148 metres (486 ft) high and the site of one of many important Māori pā in the region, with prominent excavated terracing and trenches for occupation and defence.
Ngāti Awa chief Titahi and a section of his iwi (tribe) are credited for the earthworks, although the work probably took several generations, using hand tools. Ōwairaka was a 'sister mountain' to Maungakiekie that Titahi similarly excavated. Ōwairaka was later a pā of the Waiohua confederation of Tāmaki, visited seasonally by paramount chief Kiwi Tāmaki when it was the season for birds to be preserved. The pā had a population of up to about one and a half thousand during the 16th and 17th centuries. After Te Taoū Ngāti Whātua defeated Waiohua in the great battle of Paruroa, Ōwairaka was captured and occupied by members of Te Taoū, Ngā Oho and Te Uringutu. Through strategic marriages, the victors joined bloodlines with Tāmaki, meaning Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei shares descent with groups who occupied Tāmaki Makaurau for centuries.
After the land was acquired by the Crown in 1841 and subdivided into small farms, extensive quarrying reduced the height of the scoria cone by about , significantly altered its shape and reduced the land mass to less than half. Quarrying stopped in 1928 due to pressure to retain Māori trenches which had influenced those built in World War 1. The volcano originally had two craters. One was levelled to make a playing field in the 1900s. The other was formed into the Auckland Regional Council water reservoir in 1945. The basalt quarry pit was levelled off in 1961 for an archery field and the insides of the cone was smoothed off, removing more archeological traces. Comparatively few remnants of Māori earthworks remain, but the site remains significant to both Māori and archaeologically.
Current uses of the maunga (mountain) include recreational walking, playing fields, an archery club and the water reservoir under the paddock on the mountain's southern side.
Treaty settlement
In the 2014 Treaty of Waitangi settlement between the Crown and the Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau collective of 13 Auckland iwi and hapu (also known as the Tāmaki Collective), ownership of the 14 Tūpuna Maunga of Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland was vested to the collective. The legislation specified that the land be held in trust "for the common benefit of Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau and the other people of Auckland".