Te Maharatanga o Ngā Wai / Remembering our waters

Nau mai, haere mai ki tēnei kaupapa hirahira

Welcome to this important project

Te Maharatanga o Ngā Wai, is the name of a recently completed public space situated on the corner of Sale Street and Wellesley Street that showcases Māori culture and design. Sale Street is now a place where Te Reo Māori can be seen, heard, spoken, and learned.

The name, Te Maharatanga o Ngā Wai, translates to "remembering our waters", and is a homage to the stream that once flowed through this site before the colonial settlement of Auckland. This project recognises water as taonga (a treasure), the source of life, and vital for our collective wellbeing.

The creation of Auckland's urban form has seen natural waterways in the city centre lost from sight and progressively covered over. Rainfall and natural groundwater is now channelled and piped through the city and then discharged as waste into Te Waitematā.

This project is a reminder of the presence of these urban waterways that flow beneath Tāmaki Makaurau, and our collective responsibility to care for and work with the natural environment, particularly our water systems, for the sake of all life here in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Kōrero matua

Te maharatanga o ngāwai- remembering our waters. Orangawai, oranga tāngata - healthy waters, healthy people.

Listen to the poem in Reo Māori

Whakarongo, whakarongo, whakarongo mai Ki te maharatanga o ngā waie rere mai nei, e rere atu rā
Mai i a Ranginui ka heke wōna roimata hei ua ki a Papatūānuku
Ka nekehia e ngā ua i runga i te kiri o te papa ki ngā manga
Ka hakakotahi ai ngā manga ki te awa
E rere mai, kore ingoa erangi toitū tōna mana
Te kura huna i raro i ō mātou tapuwae nei 
E rere atu ki Waiatarau
Mai i Waiatarau ki Te Waitematā
Mai i Te Waitematā ki Tikapa Moana
Mai i Tikapa Moanaki Te Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa
Ka kohikohi anō ngā waikatoa ki a Ranginui, ake ake te hurihanga wai
Ko ngā wai, ō tātou taongae tuku iho mai
Ki a tātou o te aotūroa kia tiaki ai, kia manaaki ai
Mō ngā tini hakapaparanga a mua....
Oranga wai, oranga tāngata!

Listen to the poem in English

Listen, listen, listen here To the memory of the waters that flow to here, that flow away from here
The Sky Father's tears fall as rain to the Earth Mother
The waters gather across the skin of the land as streams
Which unite to become the river
Which flows here without name but with manaintact
The hidden treasure beneath our footprints here in this place
Which flows to Waiatarau
From Waiatarau the waters flow to the Waitematā harbour
From Waitematā they flow to the Hauraki Gulf
From the Hauraki Gulf they flow to the great sea of Kiwa, the Pacific Ocean
These waters all rise to the Sky Father to begin the cycle once more
The treasure that is our waters
Presented to all of us here to safeguard and care

For all of those yet to come....
Healthy waters, healthy people!

This audio was produced by Alan Titchener who was a key member of the project.

The genesis of this project

In 2019 Sale Street was identified as an area that needed to be made safer for people trying to cross the road. A larger footpath area was created to slow traffic turning into Sale Street, which provided a bare area that could be enhanced.

Responding to the opportunity to enhance the new space, the aim was to create a more attractive public space while also reflecting the history of the site, its people, its stories. Most importantly, the cross-functional team saw this as an opportunity to test and implement an iwi partnership and Māori design approach.

The approach

This project trialled a new way of working between mana whenua (Māori tribe with territorial rights over the land) and local government and took a Māori design-led approach. For the team, this approach of working collaboratively, in a genuine partnership, was just as important as the final product.

Watch this video to hear more about how Ngāti Whātua Orakei (mana whenua) and Auckland Council worked together, and the beautiful kaupapa behind this project.

The professional development of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei's young leaders to develop their strategic thinking, project management and technical skills was a priority, as was the advancement of Māori design. Sale Street is now a place where Te Reo Māori can be seen, heard, spoken, and learned.

The new public space

The output of the project was new seating, planting, shade, art, lighting, and audio-visual for the public to enjoy. Te Maharatanga o Ngā Wai is now a place of significance; a reflection of the mana that stands in and of that place.

The innovative concrete seating has been 3-D printed using cutting edge technology to produce the distinctive design. Each bench contains around 40 repurposed car tyres, minimising the use of concrete and diverting the waste rubber away from landfill.

The curved shape of these tūru / benches draws inspiration from the lost stream's natural form and the life that would have flourished in this place, in particular tuna (eels).

The generously proportioned seats are comfortable with helpful inbuilt armrests that will assist our pakeke (elders) and less able persons to stand up from a seated position.

Watch the 3D-printed bench get made in this video.

A tribute to Hone Tuwhare

Hone Tuwhare (Ngāti Korokoro, Ngāti Tautahi, Te Popoto, Te Uri-O-Hau, 1922-2008) remains one of the most significant Māori literary voices of the twentieth century.

Hone Tuwhare lived in Nelson Street as a child and attended Campbell's Kindergarten in nearby Victoria Park.

As a tradesman in the 1970's Hone worked as a boilermaker in a workshop along Sale Street. Hone Tuwhare's footprints and now his words, are brought to life again in this place through this project.

The Tuwhare whānau kindly granted this project permission to use one of Hone Tuwhare's poems," The river is an island," to highlight the memory of the stream that once ran through this site. The poem, originally written in English by Hone Tuwhare, was translated into te reo Māori by Waihoroi Hotorene (Ngāti Hine) as part of this project.

Watch Hone Tuwhare's "The River is an Island" performed in te Reo Māori by Te Paea Neho.

Watch Hone Tuwhare's poem "The river is an island" performed in English by Jyde Kiripatea.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.