Otakou ( mi, Ōtākou ) is a settlement within the boundaries of the city of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country ...

. It is located 25 kilometres from the city centre at the eastern end of Otago Peninsula, close to the entrance of

Otago Harbour Otago Harbour is the harbor, natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, from the harbour m ...

. Though a small fishing village, Otakou is important in the history of Otago for several reasons. The settlement is the modern centre and traditional home of the Ōtākou (assembly) of

Ngāi Tahu Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori (tribe) of the South Island. Its (tribal area) is the largest in New Zealand, and extends from the White Bluffs / Te Parinui o Whiti (southeast of Blenheim), Mount Mahanga and Kahurangi Poin ...

. In 1946 Otakou Fisheries was founded in the township; this was later to become a major part of the Otago fishing industry.

History

The name is thought to come from

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the ...

words meaning either "single village" or "place of red earth". Prior to the arrival of European settlers, the place was a prominent

settlement, and it is still the site of Otago's most important (meeting ground). By the early 19th century, the three

, Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha had blended into a single tribal entity. The

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in the treatment of the ...

was signed nearby in 1840 on the ''H.M.S Herald'' by two important chiefs, who were descended from all three tribes. Prior to the standardisation of Māori spelling in the 1840s, the name was written as "Otago", reflecting its pronunciation in a local

southern Māori dialect Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

. This prestandardised form was adopted by European settlers as the name for the surrounding area, the

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

region, and it is commonly mistaken as a European corruption of . The name originally referred to the channel off Wellers Rock but was transferred to the lower harbour as a whole, the port, the nearby Māori settlements and the

Weller brothers The Weller brothers, Englishmen of Sydney, Australia, and Otago, New Zealand, were the founders of a whaling station on Otago Harbour and New Zealand's most substantial merchant traders in the 1830s. Immigration The brothers, Joseph Brooks (180 ...

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

establishment, one of the region's oldest European settlements, which had been founded in 1831. The old Māori names for the Māori settlements were Te Ruatitiko, Tahakopa, Omate and Ohinetu. In December 1817 the ''Sophia'', a

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

sealing ship captained by James Kelly, anchored in the waters of the harbour near Otakou. A small group of men, including Captain Kelly, took a rowing boat around Heyward Point to visit Whareakeake, then the site of a Māori (village), where one of the men, William Tucker, had a house and a business selling . For reasons that remain speculative, the encounter turned violent and three of Kelly's men, including Tucker, were killed. The survivors rowed back to the ''Sophia'' but, according to Kelly's account of the event, found her boarded by Māori from Otakou and retook her in a bloody fight. Historians caution that Kelly's account, made to justify the actions he took, exaggerates the danger he and his men were in. Kelly destroyed multiple canoes and set fire to "the beautiful city of Otago", which was almost certainly Otakou, although the at Whareakeake was also burned and abandoned around this time, which some historians believe to have been Kelly's doing. This incident is treated as an episode in the ongoing state of lawless conflict known as the

Sealers' War The Sealers' War (1810–1821) in southern New Zealand (then part of the Colony of New South Wales), also known as the "War of the Shirt", was a series of often indiscriminate attacks and reprisals between Māori and European sealers. Initially ...

Present use

Otakou remains an important centre of Ngāi Tahu life, as the location of Ōtākou Marae. It is a of

and the branch of Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, and includes the Tamatea (meeting house). Otakou is located close to

Taiaroa Head Taiaroa Head is a headland at the end of the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand, overlooking the mouth of the Otago Harbour. It lies within the city limits of Dunedin. The nearest settlement, Otakou, lies three kilometres to the south. The cape is ...

, the site of an

albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pac ...

colony and other wildlife such as seals and

penguins Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly ada ...

. Local Māori still call Taiaroa Head by its original name, , which was also the name of the (fortification) established there around 1750 and still occupied by Māori in the 1840s, before the land was taken by the Government under the Public Works Act for building the lighthouse and the fortifications used during the Russian Scare of the 1880s.

Demographics

Statistics New Zealand describes Ōtākou-

Harington Point The settlement of Harington Point (often incorrectly spelt ''Harrington Point'') lies within the boundaries of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is located at the Otago Heads, at the northeastern end of Otago Peninsula, close to the entranc ...

as a rural settlement which covers , and is part of the much larger Otago Peninsula statistical area. Ōtākou-Harington Point had a population of 192 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short ...

, an increase of 30 people (18.5%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 21 people (12.3%) since the 2006 census. There were 102 households. There were 99 males and 90 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.1 males per female. The median age was 57.8 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 18 people (9.4%) aged under 15 years, 18 (9.4%) aged 15 to 29, 93 (48.4%) aged 30 to 64, and 60 (31.2%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 81.2% European/Pākehā, 32.8% Māori, 3.1% Pacific peoples, 3.1% Asian, and 1.6% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). Although some people objected to giving their religion, 59.4% had no religion, 31.2% were Christian and 4.7% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 30 (17.2%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 30 (17.2%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $19,200, compared with $31,800 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 48 (27.6%) people were employed full-time, 36 (20.7%) were part-time, and 9 (5.2%) were unemployed.

History

Present use

Demographics

References

Further reading