Te Wai Horotiu Histories 

Introduction

When archaeologists excavated a site on the corner of Queen Street and Victoria Street West in central Auckland in 1987, they uncovered human, animal and plant histories that stretch back hundreds of years to the earliest Māori occupants of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. The site was once situated on the banks of Te Wai Horotiu, also known as the Waihorotiu Stream, which today flows through a drain underneath Queen Street. The site was also the location of Auckland’s first jail (also spelled gaol) and animal pound, both built in 1841.  

Archaeologist Simon Best uncovered several pre-colonial artefacts beneath a stone lining of the stream that had been constructed by Europeans in the early 1840s. Among the artefacts were small kernels of hinau berries that had been gnawed by kiore (Pacific rats), with their teeth marks still clearly visible.  Kiore arrived on the waka (canoes) of the Polynesian ancestors of Māori during their early migrations to New Zealand.  The berry kernels, along with the leaf litter and charcoal found beneath them, date back to the late 1200s and help tell the stories of some of the earliest occupants of this area who cleared small areas of mature forest alongside the river to garden and fish. 

Archaeologists also found kō and ketu (gardening tools), as well as fragments of woven harakeke (flax), ochre (often used for dyeing) and shell midden, all of which date back to the mid-1500s. The presence of charcoal and fern from this period indicate that by this time much of the forest in the area had been cleared for gardening. This reflected an increase in the population of the area and the seasonal rhythms that Māori followed of planting, fishing, harvesting and filling the storage pits at various sites across the isthmus. 

Ropata Pāora of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei commented in his conversation with Auckland Museum that “to have a remnant in enei taonga (these treasures) that associates us with those histories I think is a beautiful thing. For me, being a descendant of a lot of those lineages, and very proud, it's always about waking up and remaining connected with that heritage … I look at these artifacts and I see life”.  

The excavation also revealed remnants of Auckland’s first jail, built only a year after the British government arrived in Tāmaki. The jail ran for around 25 years, until it was replaced by the Mt Eden Prison.  Men, women and children were often imprisoned for relatively minor offences such as homelessness, drunkenness and petty theft.  Many men were sentenced to hard labour, which involved breaking up rock in the hard labour yard and using it to build many of Auckland’s roads, including Queen Street, Khyber Pass, Mt Eden Road.  The jail was cold, damp and rat-infested, with the Waihorotiu Stream running through it, which by then had become an open sewer and often flooded when it rained.  Alongside the jail there was an animal pound, which held dogs that had escaped from their owners.  Archaeologists found some of their remains in the stream.  

The artefacts found at this site reveal centuries of Māori settlement on the banks of the Waihorotiu Stream.  They also provide insight into the lives of the poor and incarcerated in early colonial Auckland, who played an important role in building the city but are often overlooked in its histories.  Additionally, these artefacts tell us about the shifting relationships between humans, animals and the natural environment in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland over time. 

Text by Lucy Mackintosh