The historical significance of one of Dunedin's first landing sites - for Maori and Pakeha - has been acknowledged by Heritage New Zealand.
Toitu Tauraka Waka became the first site in the South Island, and second nationally, to be recognised as a wahi tupuna, an important place of Maori ancestral significance.
It was used as a landing site by Maori who were embarking on mahinga kai expeditions at the time of colonial settlement. The site later became a trading post and marketplace during the earliest colonial years.
The tauraka waka site was ultimately swallowed by building and foreshore reclamation projects of Dunedin's early European settlers. The site is now covered by the John Wickliffe Plaza.
A ceremony yesterday, attended by 50 people, marked the site's recognition as a wahi tupuna and a commemorative plaque was unveiled.
Otakou kaumatua Edward Ellison told those present the recognition of the site was important to the area's tangata whenua.
‘‘For us, it's an important way of bringing our history back to acknowledge it and to celebrate it,'' he said.
‘‘This is an important ancestral landmark for us.''
While the plaque marked a ‘‘small'' acknowledgement of Otakou's history, it was only the beginning of more reclamation of the runanga's ancestry, he said.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said he was pleased to increase the public's understanding of Toitu.
‘‘Toitu goes back before Dunedin's beginnings and has been here for all that time.‘‘
When the settlers stepped ashore in 1848, their feet squelched in the mud of the Toitu estuary,'' he said.
While the creek had long since been diverted and not seen by the public for more than a century, it was ‘‘still there flowing quietly beneath our feet'', he said.
‘‘This is where Dunedin began.''
Representatives of Heritage New Zealand and the Maori Heritage Council attended the ceremony.
