Before getting into the timeline of Hurimoana Urupā, it would be a wasted opportunity to not mention aspects of the Urupu that are interesting because of the fact that they no longer exist today on the site. One of these aspects is the so-called “Ancient Māori Burial House”. It is important to firstly acknowledge that information about this house is limited and the original article shown here was not made aware to me until reading Stan Pardoes’ book “Stories of old Urupā within Turanganui a Kiwa”.

Essentially the article uses the memory of Meri Tutira (Who Papa Stan in his book has corrected to Meri Hape) to describe a large building located on Hurimoana that housed the tūpāpaku of rangatira. The whare was said to have been 15 meters in circumference and made entirely of totara with raupo to cover the roof, aka to bind it and feathers inserted around the building in an effort to maintain the airtight integrity of the building. The inside of the building was said to have contained 30 small compartments with chests covered in whakairo and in the shape of a waka in each compartment and varied in length from 1.5m - 2.4m. 

The details of this article are significant because it gives us an approximate date where we can work forward from. More than this, it gives us evidence of a building with significance to the Urupā, Hapū and Iwi that has not existed in living memory for more than a century.

In the sense of a timeline for Hurimoana, it can be confidently stated that the Urupā was in use from as early as circa 1868.

It is important to note that this description is based on an approximately 63 year old memory by Meri Hape. While there is no reason to doubt the validity of this story, it is possible that details may have been altered over time within the memory.

On the 25th of September, 1919, a Te Kooti Whenua Māori (Māori Land Court) notice was published in Issue 40 of the New Zealand Gazette which, in the Kupu Apiti or Additional words section, has Moana Paratene and others as applicants applying for shares in the land block called Whakaruaroa. This was the original name of the land block before it was separated into further sections with one of those being Whakaruaroa No.6, the original name for land that is today called Hurimoana urupā.

In the same year, on the 24th of October, 1919, a partition order was signed by Judge James Browne to create Whakaruaroa No.6 under freehold title.

With the land under freehold, an application was made in 1925 by Karukoura Hona and co. to set aside a collection of land blocks, with Whakaruaroa No.6 (part) being one them, as a Native reservation. 

For whatever reason, this application was not accepted as on 19th of November, 1927 a partition order was signed by Judge Harold Carr which consented to the amalgamation 

Whakaruaroa No.1, Whakaruaroa No.2, Whakaruaroa No.6, Oweta 2B 1 and Whakato No.1 into a single 1 acre (0.4 hectares) land block that maintained the name of Whakaruaroa No.6. It is interesting to note that, with the exception of Whakaruaroa No.2, these were the same land blocks mentioned in the unsuccessful attempt by Karukoura Hone to create a native reservation.

On the 28 of June, 1928 an application was made by H. Te Aturangi for the appointment of a committee of management for the newly amalgamated land block of Whakaruaroa No.6. It is also important to note that this is the first time that Whakaruaroa No.6 is directly referred to as Hurimoana Urupā.

This new land block had a total of 61 shareholders with 80 shared divided among them.

By the 10th of December 1932, another partition order was authorised which separated Whakaruaroa No.6 into two parts;  Whakaruaroa No.6A (31 perches or 0.08 hectares) and Whakaruaroa No.6B (3 roods and 21 perches or 0.32 hectares). Also in this partition order, Whakaruaroa 6B was given to 73 shareholders with a total of 62 shares. 

On 19/02/1970 vesting order on consolidation was created which made it official that the block formerly part of Whakaruaroa 6B, comprising 3 acres and 4 roods, became Hurimoana 11. This was done under the Manutuke Consolidation scheme.

The Manutuke Consolidation scheme was a local programme that was a part of a national initiative enforced through the 1953 Māori Affairs Act. The purpose of the act was essentially to force Māori land that was considered unproductive in an economic sense into productive land through varying forms of uses. This was done by redistributing the little amount of shares Māori Landowners held in many small blocks and turning those into larger portions of shares in bigger blocks. The idea being that economic profitability is more achievable on bigger blocks of land with several owners. To further reduce the number of Māori shareholders in these blocks, shareholders who had interests worth less than £25 were forced to sell to the Māori Trustee who would then sell those shares on, usually to Māori who had greater shares in the same block of land.

As Part of the Manutuke Consolidation scheme Hurimoana 11 was subjected to the same conditions. However, given its already established land use as an Urupā, the vesting order on consolidation, in this case, appears to be more of a formality. 

Following the process, 9 shareholders were selected as the original trustees for the new Hurimoana 11 Land block. These shareholders were chosen because they were the 9 trustees of Whakato Marae at the time.

In comparison, the Partition order mentioned earlier dated to 1919/1920 shows 55 recorded shareholders. While acknowledging that this was Whakaruaroa 6, so before it became Whakaruaroa 6A and 6B, it does give a tangible example of how consolidation can be beneficial if the goal is to increase the economic productivity of land by reducing the number of people involved in its governance.

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By 1957 the number of shareholders had increased to 73. Whereas the original 55 shareholders held interest in Whakaruaroa No.6 which had an area of 1 acre and 2 roods, the greater number of shareholders at this time had interests in a smaller piece of land, with Whakaruaroa 6B being 3 roods and 21 perches in area.