Tracing Motu Kairangi

The Wellington City Council’s Tātou ki Uta – Coastal Reserves Management Plan guided us to explore how spatial design could challenge existing regulations and societal narratives. The site: Churchill Park was identified for redesign due to issues with privately leased boatsheds. Our responses involved sessions with mana whenua organisations and the WCC, leading to multi-programme proposals that addressed the site’s stories, ecologies, and socio-political context.

Tracing Motu Kairangi is a spatial storytelling intervention in Churchill Park. The project explores indigenous narratives to acknowledge the whenua’s changing geography and pre-colonial history. Set within a gathering space surrounded by restorative planting, it proposes a large model of Motu Kairangi revealing the island’s topography before the Haowhenua earthquake, while tracing Ngāi Tara fortifications, pā sites, and significant awa. Storytelling signage shares pūrākau, iwi migrations, and historic knowledge throughout the park. At night, glow-in-the-dark stones embedded in the pathways evoke the story of Whetū Kairangi Pā, which was said to be surrounded by stars. Informed by indigenous ontologies and accounts of migration, it seeks to uphold the significance of the land and iwi who whakapapa to it.