THE FORTITUDE OF FORTIFIED MAORI SETTLEMENT EARTHWORKS: ANALYSIS OF Pā SITE PRESERVATION

Four pā sites (fortified early Maori settlements) on Banks Peninsula, New Zealand were analysed to investigate possible degradation of earthwork features since pā abandonment nearly two centuries ago. Earthwork features including palisades, walls, ditches, trenches, and entrances were evaluated at Onawe, Okaruru, Pa Bay, and Te Puia using historical aerial imagery records at each site, current imagery, and corresponding fieldwork. Historical images were examined from the earliest record in 1941 to the present, with ~5 decades in between. The effects of subsequent land-use on the integrity of pā site features was examined to assess the durability of such earthworks based on their unique geology, locality, land-uses, and conformity to pā site protection legislation. The durability of these features were compared to the extent of the features as previously documented in the 1970s with corresponding schematic models of pā site fortification morphology and design. The results indicate that each pā site’s earthwork preservation operated on a unique array of variables yet at each of the four sites some, if not the majority, were vulnerable to subsequent agricultural processes and development. The additions of infrastructure, fence-lines, livestock in pastures encompassing the pā site area, as well as the denuding of the landscape with processes such as plowing and mowing are demonstrated to have damaged a significant number of the pā earthworks. This damage is mostly visible in the agriculture processes reducing the extent of the linear features or flattening the fortifications so they are no longer visible in the geomorphology of the landscape. However, subsequent land-use practices also helped reveal earthworks succumbing to increased vegetation or otherwise becoming hidden; natural erosion of the headland and earthwork material also had an impact on degradation that must be considered. These heritage sites are governed by the same standards of protection, yet with varying practices, which demand further investigation to preserve the integrity of these sacred historical features for the future.