About Kāi Tahu

Who ARe Kāi Tahu?

The South Island (Te Waipounamu) of New Zealand not only has an entirely different landscape to that of the North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) but also a different indigenous demographic. The South Island was originally inhabited by early Polynesian settlers. The original inhabitants of the area were known as Kāti Hāwea and Te Rapuwai. Anderson claims that these people were certainly Polynesian and among the ancestors of Southern Māori. 1 The following onset of people were the Waitaha and their legacy was left in the many places they named throughout the South Island. They were an early group of people who are known to have arrived on the canoe, the Uruao. The well-known Southern tribal ancestor Rākaihautū of the Waitaha people, was described as a giant. He carved out the lakes and rivers of the South Island with his supernatural digging implement. The consequent migration and intermarriage of Kāti Māmoe and then Kāi Tahu from the East coast of the North Island to the South Island and in to Waitaha procured a stronghold for Māori in Te Waipounamu. The following map illustrates the large tribal area (in green) now associated with Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe and Kāi Tahu in the South Island

Trails and Movement

Kāi Tahu were a nomadic people who travelled extensively on land and sea. They travelled from the Ōtākou villages up the Otago Harbour and up into bays and inlets within the Dunedin area, known as Ōtepoti. This area was a landing spot and a point from which the Ōtākou based Māori would hunt in the surrounding bush. Māori would drag their waka into estuaries and walk by foot to food gathering places. There were four species of moa that roamed the Otago Peninsula. There were moa hunter sites in Andersons Bay, St Kilda, and St Clair. Māori were able to follow particular tracks over the peninsula and around the Lawyers Head area that would give them access to the coastline, up the Taiari river (Taieri) and down into the Taiari plains. The lakes, rivers and wetlands in this area, including that which is now known as Te Nohoaka o Tukiauau/Sinclair Wetlands (a fantastic place to visit with tamariki and the school) was teeming with kai, including īnaka (whitebait), tuna (eels), kanakana (lamprey) and birdlife. According to traditions the bush was so thick in the Dunedin area that when some European ventured in they never returned. In 1844, Edward Shortland suggests that the ancient walking tracks were falling into disuse by the time he was exploring the Otago area because of the superior marine technology that had been employed by Māori over the previous forty years. The whaling boat proved to be a vastly improved mode of transport from the carved single or double hulled Māori vessels that dominated sea transport until the arrival of the European.