Shifting Grounds

Deep Histories of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland by Lucy Macintosh

Te Ihu o Mataaho
p.21
".. reminding us that places have never been fixed points on a map and are always evolving."

A reminder to me.

"A Strange Sight"
p.59
"By the 1840s, the grove of trees in the Domain was the last remaining area of forest in central Auckland, as most of the trees near the town had been cut down for timber or to make room for pasture."

p.60
"The way that early Pakeha settlers related to the Domain in early colonial Auckland reflected the Enlightenment views that many brought with them to New Zealand. These deep-seated assumptions separated people from the world around them and from each other, leading them to divide and organise land, people, animals and plants into patterns such as the grid, and to rank them in order of importance."

I found this paragraph an 'enlightenment', a reason, why early settlers were operating the way they did.

p.66
"Yet another correspondent remarked: Persons have purchased suburban Allotments around the Government Domain, on account of the privacy, and to be free from the annoyance of unpleasant neighbours, and it was never anticipated by them that Maories (sic) would be dwelling in Auckland Park." - Letter to New Zealander, 19/7/1845

Such a surprising view as this was previously Māori land where I assumed they lived, but this fits with the view in the paragraph on p.60 above.

More reading to come, and more notes.