← Ōtūmoetai Pā field trip experts
Meet Des Tata
Ko wai au. Ko Des Matakokiri Tata. Nō Ngāi Tamarāwaho, te taha o tōku pāpā, nō Ngāti Tūwharetoa, te taha o tōku whaea. Nō Huria, Huria taku marae, nō reira tēnā koutou.
I enjoy this pā because I see what it does for all of our children who's on this peninsula. And also all of the other schools; they come from outside that I normally bring here. So you got bus loads through the year coming here – all the colleges, primary and all of the intermediates – they all come here.
But, most of all is our mokopuna that goes to the school here. And they get to come here, they walk down, they walk down here. And, to be part of this, this pā. That's why they love it. Even the parents come; even their parents come. So, I know we are on to a good thing here.
And if we’re talking about... about a treaty relationship, that’s where you'll see it. You'll see with these kids. All Pākehā kids, Māori, Indian, and they all come here and they're all one, and one peace here, at Ōtūmoetai Pā. You would never get anywhere else.
Meet Ken Phillips
Hi. My name is Ken Phillips. I'm an archaeologist. I've been working as an archaeologist for the best part of 30 years, primarily in the Bay of Plenty region. I studied at Auckland University after first studying science and then discovering how fascinating history, anthropology, and archaeology was.
My first experience in archaeology, really field archaeology, was a field survey around Ohiwa harbour in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, which is where I was born and grew up. And following that survey, I was sold on the idea of studying archaeology. Just the idea of going out and discovering the remains of the past that nobody else had ever seen, just never got old. And I still love it to this day, 30 years on; 35 years on.
So yeah. I work primarily in the Tauranga area. And we, myself and my team, we do surveys of properties before development happens, whether that be a kiwifruit orchard development or a motorway. And then we usually go in and once we've discovered where the archaeological sites are, we'll go in and carry out excavations to recover the information.
And that's essentially my job. And then once we've done the excavation, we write a report detailing all our finds.
Meet Barry Ngatoko
Kia ora koutou katoa. Ko Barry Ngatoko ahau. Ko Mauao te maunga, Kōpūrererua te awa, ko Ngāti Ranginui te iwi, ko Ngāi Tamarāwaho te hapū, ko Huria te marae. Ko Barry Ngatoko ahau. Kia ora.
I'm a kaitiaki for our hapū, and I look after the history and evidence of our whenua in our rohe. I have cultural monitors working for me, and we work alongside archaeologists, who work for the clients who have permits to work in this area to dig. And when they dig and they are removing soil, topsoil, they contact us and we come along and work alongside the archaeologists to find evidence of our existence on the whenua, especially if we know we're from the area.
We look for things; evidence like storage pits, fire pits, the ruas, pipi shells, kōiwi. And it tells a story of our existence on the land and what we actually ate and how long these things have been in the ground and covered up. We do all this for our hapū and our people, and we love the work that we do because it tells the history and culture of our people who existed here prior to us, prior to the European settlement.
Tēnã koutou, tēnã koutou katoa.
Meet Dean Flavell
Tēnā koutou. My name is Dean Flavell. I'm the Pou Ārahi for the Tauranga Heritage Collection.
My job is to look after the taonga and make sure that it's safe. I suppose I got into doing this sort of work because I was interested. Always as a child, I used to pick up stones, shells, etc; pop them in my pocket. So I think I've always been interested in looking after things. And so, I think it came from an early age, my interests and, throughout my lifetime. Other than what I do now in the museum, I've been a carver, I've been an artist.
And, I just enjoy the idea of sharing our culture with other people and hopefully, in a museum.
Meet Te Haana Jacob
Tēnā koutou rangatahi mā. Ko Te Haana Jacobs ahau. I am a Pouārahi for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga in the Tauranga Moana office. Choosing this job to become a Pouārahi is actually in my blood. I am whakapapa to Te Arawa, Ngāi Te Rangi, as well as Ngāti Ranginui who share their tapuwae in the Tauranga area.
Tauranga actually means a place of anchorage, and you can tell by all of the sites that we find here in Tauranga that belong to many hapū, as well as the iwi of Tauranga Moana. As a kaitiaki – born as a kaitiaki – it is my obligation and responsibility towards our iwi to help support them in terms of archaeological investigations or findings, as well as reconnecting back with our tūpuna through discoveries.
My whakapapa is actually important in terms of discovering who I was, what my connections were to the Ōtūmoetai Pā – being related to both Hinewā as well as Te Rangihouhiri a Kahukino, related to Hōri Tūpaea mā also, as well as Taiaho Hōri Ngātai, who all come from those kāwai whakapapa that actually began at Ōtūmoetai Pā.
My other reasoning for being in this, is my koro was hands-on with the whenua. He's helped with our settlements and this is just us continuing to live those legacies of our tūpuna that have died before us. In Tauranga we've had lots of land confiscations that have affected us and the generations that continue to come through; and it's our job to make sure that some of the interests are protected through mechanisms of our Act.
Born and raised in Matapihi, I grew up in kura kaupapa, and reo was my first language. I am also a kōhanga reo generation tamariki and that is my tūāpapa for the mahi that I do now. That is what inspired me to get into this mahi, to be part of this kind of process, especially when it's not a familiar Māori process. This is why I'm here to understand it, to help navigate it with our whānau; and anei au e tū nei.
Meet Rachel Darmody
Kia ora. My name is Rachel Darmody, and I'm the senior archaeologist for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga in the Tauranga office. I'm originally from Taiere Mouth and I whakapapa to Ngāi Tahu.
It's probably not a great surprise that I ended up doing archaeology because I love science and history, and it's a combination of the two. I also grew up on a farm near the beach, where there's loads of archaeological sites. And my parents are great explorers and loved history.
I studied anthropology and history at the University of Otago, and I did my Masters and PhD on the archaeology of the Clutha District, where I ended up working for the council. And it was there when I got an email that said, 'come to the sunny Bay of Plenty', and I ended up here.
The Bay of Plenty has the most beautiful archaeological sites and landscapes. But there's also huge pressure for development. And that’s where Heritage New Zealand comes in. It's our job to promote the protection of those archaeological sites. And when that's not possible, we manage the recovery of archaeological information from the sites.
When you're an archaeologist, people always ask you about dinosaurs. But we study the people of the past and what they left behind. So no dinos. And we're not as glamorous as Indiana Jones. But I do get to visit some amazing archeological sites with awesome people, and sometimes I even get to dig things up.
Meet Eleanor Sturrock
Kia ora. My name is Eleanor Sturrock, and I'm an archaeologist at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga. I work in the Tauranga office in the Bay of Plenty.
I studied archaeology and geography at the University of Auckland. I obtained my Master's degree before working as an archaeologist.
I've always been interested in understanding how people lived in the past. The great thing about archaeology is that you get to unearth artefacts and remains that have been buried for potentially hundreds of years. And then with that information, you’re able to piece together a story.
If you like the idea of uncovering history, then perhaps archaeology is something that you could study in future.
