Sidestep: Te Henga

The Te Henga area contains the largest concentration of archaeological sites of any district in the Waitakere Ranges. This reflects the importance this area held for the Maori, because of its abundance of natural resources, its excellent cultivation sites and because of its location on the Tasman coast midway between the Manukau and Waitemata Harbours. The area was presumably permanently occupied for many centuries, although a number of the coastal sites appear to be those of short-term food-gathering parties. Several of the sites are important in traditional Maori history. Seventy-five sites are recorded and include numerous pa, pits and terraces, occupational sites, rock shelters, cultivation sites, middens, and burial sites. The major sites are described in detail and appear to be clustered in three areas: along the coastline, around Bethells Swamp, and around Lakes Wainamu and Kawaupaka. This area contains perhaps the best preserved examples in the Waitakere Ranges of an island pa, an inland headland pa, a cave shelter and stone retaining walls.

With the changing vegetation, sites that in the 1930's were in grass and clearly visible have now been obscured by thick scrub. In other places, sites that 40 years ago were unknown because of dense scrub cover are now easily found under high canopied bush or in open farmland. Similarly, coastal erosion and moving dune sands have now removed or buried several sites.

The history of the Maori people of the Waitakere Ranges prior to the eighteenth century is confused and not clearly understood. The Ngaoho, Ngati Awa and finally Kawerau tribes occupied the area at different times during at least the five centuries prior to 1700. The earliest reliably dated event involving the Te Henga district are the two raids upon the Kawerau inhabitants by the Ngati Whatua led by the great chief, Kawharu, some time between 1680 and 1730. Kawharu led two raids into the Waitakeres; the first was less impressive than the second in which he sacked all the pa down the coast in his conquest. Two pa in the Te Henga area were occupied by the Kawerau at that time and were sacked. These were the Swamp Pa (N41/19) and Ihumoana Island Pa (N41/48). The Kawerau who escaped Kawharu's warriors, presumably by hiding in the rugged Waitakeres' bush, continued to occupy the ranges for two more centuries. Te Henga was one of the few areas occupied by Maoris when European settlers arrived in the 1850's.

It is worth noting that last statement. Due to internal scrapping between tribes and the decimation of numbers due to the incessant killing, slavery and cannibalism of a certain tribe from the north, few areas around Auckland were occupied when settlers arrived.

Post-European Maori occupation sites in the area are Okaihau settlement (N41/16), Waiti settlement (N41/18) and Parawai Pa (N41/122). The last Maoris left Te Henga in the 1950's. In early post-European times, a cross and savage old Maori, called Pareoha, lived in the southern part of the area surveyed. He lived by himself in the basin above Cannibal Creek falls, where he had his own cultivations (N41/27) and dried his fish (Bethell 1968). Pareoha is reputed to have eaten human flesh and Cannibal Creek is named after him.