Ahi kā or Ahi kaa (burning fires) is a principle in

Māori culture Māori culture () is the customs, cultural practices, and beliefs of the Māori people of New Zealand. It originated from, and is still part of, Polynesians, Eastern Polynesian culture. Māori culture forms a distinctive part of Culture of New ...

, referring to take whenua (land rights) through visible occupation and use of land. Ahi kā is one of the traditional means to establish

mana whenua In New Zealand, tangata whenua () is a Māori term that translates to "people of the land". It can refer to either a specific group of people with historical claims to a district, or more broadly the Māori people who's common ancestors are bur ...

(authority over land). Extensive continuous occupation is referred to as Aki kā roa.

History

Ahi kā is one of the major principles used to establish mana whenua, alongside other principles which include discovery/exploration (whenua kite hou), ancestral rights (take tupuna), conquest or confiscation (take raupatu) or gifting (take tuku). Ahi kā refers literally to cooking fires that are continuously tended, however over time visible fire began to symbolise continuous occupation of an area by

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

and

hapū In Māori language, Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief ...

(tribes and sub-tribes). Ahi kā traditionally was shown by activities such as maintenance of eel weirs, resource gathering, physical occupation shown by

kāinga A kāinga ( southern Māori: ''kaika'' or ''kaik'') is the traditional form of village habitation of pre-European Māori in New Zealand. It was unfortified or only lightly fortified, and over time became less important than the well-fortified ...

(villages),

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori people, Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive :wikt:terrace, terraces – and also to fo ...

(forts), and urupā (cemeteries). If land was abandoned or only rarely used, it was referred to as ahi tere (an unstable flame). If an area had been completed abandoned, it was described as ahi mataotao (a cold or extinguished fire). Ahi kā can also refer to people who occupy an area, left behind to maintain continuous occupation. Traditionally, if an iwi or hapū were defeated in battle and were forced to retreat, a small number of people were often left in the hinterlands of their former lands to tend the fires of occupation. These fires were tended in order to keep the claim of continuous occupation while the group built up strength to retake their former lands. During the

Musket Wars The Musket Wars were a series of as many as 3,000 battles and raids fought throughout New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands) among Māori people, Māori between 1806 and 1845, after Māori first obtained muskets and then engaged in an inte ...

in the 1820s, most people fled the Tāmaki Makaurau Region for safer areas of the country, such as the

Waikato Region The Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City, as well as ...

. Many tribes such as

Te Kawerau ā Maki Te Kawerau ā Maki, Te Kawerau a Maki, or Te Kawerau-a-Maki is a Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) of the Auckland Region of New Zealand. Predominantly based in West Auckland (Hikurangi also known as Waitākere), it had 251 registered adult members as of J ...

and

Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki is a Māori people, Māori tribe that is based in the area around Clevedon, New Zealand, Clevedon, part of the Auckland region (''Tāmaki'' in the Māori language). It is one of the twelve members of the Hauraki Collective ...

left small numbers of people behind to maintain ahi kā. During the

Ihumātao Ihumātao is an archaeological site of historic importance in the suburb of Māngere, Auckland. Once a pā site, it stands on the Ihumātao Peninsula, at the base of Ōtuataua, part of the Auckland volcanic field. Its scoria cone reaches above ...

sale and development protests in the 2010s, the

New Zealand Government The New Zealand Government () is the central government through which political authority is exercised in New Zealand. As in most other parliamentary democracies, the term "Government" refers chiefly to the executive branch, and more specifica ...

and

Fletcher Construction The Fletcher Construction Company Limited is a New Zealand construction company and a subsidiary of Fletcher Building. Together with Higgins Contractors Ltd and Brian Perry Civil it makes up the Construction division of Fletcher Building. Fletc ...

was criticised for not consulting the ahi kā of Ihumātao (i.e. the Te Ahiwaru

Waiohua Te Waiohua or Te Wai-o-Hua is a Māori people, Māori iwi (tribe) confederation that thrived in the early 17th century. The rohe (tribal area) was primarily the central Auckland, Tāmaki Makaurau area (the Auckland isthmus) and they had pā (for ...

and

Ngāti Mahuta Ngāti Mahuta is a sub-tribe (or hapū) of the Waikato (iwi), Waikato tribe (or iwi) of Māori people, Māori in the North Island of New Zealand. The territory (rohe) of Ngāti Mahuta is the Kawhia Harbour, Kawhia and Huntly, New Zealand, Hunt ...

residents of Ihumātao Village). From the 1860s, the Native Land Court (now

Māori Land Court The Māori Land Court () is the specialist court of record in New Zealand that hears matters relating to Māori land. Established in 1865 as the Native Land Court, its purpose was to translate customary communal landholdings into individual ti ...

) used ahi kā as a principle in settling claims between iwi, however showed a preference for claims of conquest, and allowed hereditary

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

even in cases where people did not currently live in their ancestral lands. The

Waitangi Tribunal The Waitangi Tribunal (Māori: ''Te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi'') is a New Zealand permanent commission of inquiry established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. It is charged with investigating and making recommendations on c ...

continues to use ahi kā as a guiding principle to establish land rights.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahi ka Aboriginal title in New Zealand Ceremonial flames Indigenous land rights Māori culture Māori society Māori words and phrases Traditions involving fire