Philosophy
Introduction
Te Parapara
welcome to
Nau mai, haere mai
Hamilton Gardens
Press any key to proceed
Fifty years ago, the site of Hamilton Gardens was a bleak landscape with no
indication of its past as a centre of Māori settlement and home to the famous Ngāti Wairere chief named Hānui. It was formerly the site of fertile gardens and customary rituals for the harvesting of food crops.EndFragment
Kīngaitanga
Wairere
Waikato
Land confiscations
Kōrero o ngā kaumātua o Ngāti Wairere
After European settlement the site was variously used as a rifle range, a dog dosing strip, sand quarry and go-cart track. During the 1960s the central gully section served as the city’s main rubbish dump. Covered in blackberry with seagulls circling above, no one could have imagined that such a barren mess could one day become an award-winning public garden and the Waikato’s most popular visitor attraction.EndFragment
In the 1950s the Hamilton Beautifying Society lobbied for a public garden on this part of
the town greenspace and initially it occupied 4 hectares. The design of that top area was
and still is planted in the gardenesque tradition with specimen trees and flower beds set
in flat lawns. Most development of Hamilton Gardens has occurred since 1980, growing
in scope and vision to become a unique showcase for the story of gardens.
EndFragment
Today, the award-winning Hamilton Gardens has five garden collections with more than 24 themed gardens and is the Waikato's most popular attraction with over a million visitors every year.
Throughout history, gardens have been a way of expressing the important philosophical
ideas of their time. Each garden tells a story and offers an insight into different cultural
expressions of gardening.EndFragment
Traditional botanic gardens concentrate on plant collections, conservation,
research and education.
Hamilton Gardens has the unique mission of showcasing the cultural expression,
meaning and role of gardens over the past 4,000 years.
Before Europeans arrived, riverbanks throughout the central Waikato were lined with māra kai. Te Parapara was originally the name of the pre-European Māori settlement in what is now the centre of Hamilton Gardens.
Hamilton Gardens is home to Te Parapara, a productive māra kai
that is based on the expression of local kawa, kaupapa and tikanga.
Te Parapara showcases
ancestral practices, materials
and ceremonies relating to food
production and storage.
Te Parapara is a joint project that extends beyond māra reinstatement to include the reclaiming of local marae/hapū knowing.
Te Parapara provides a wonderful example of collective efforts that can be made to reclaim, reframe and reinstate cultural identity in a way that supports customary harvest and the expression of local hapū kawa, kaupapa and tikanga.