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Local Area Info: P?

The word p? (IPA pa?; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any M?ori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. P? are mainly in the North Island of New Zealand, north of Lake Taupo. Over 5000 sites have been located, photographed and examined although few have been subject to detailed analysis. No p? have been yet located from the early colonization period when early Polynesian-M?ori colonizers lived in the lower South Island. Variations similar to p? are found throughout central Polynesia, in the islands of Fiji, Tonga and the Marquesas Islands.

In M?ori culture, a great p? represented the mana (prestige or power) and strategic ability of an iwi (tribe or tribal confederacy), as personified by a rangatira (chieftain). P? are located in various defensible locations around the territory (rohe) of an iwi to protect fertile plantation sites and food supplies.

Almost all p? are found on prominent raised ground, especially volcanic hills. The natural slope of the hill is then terraced. Dormant volcanoes were commonly used for p? in Auckland. P? are multipurpose in function. P? that have been extensively studied after the New Zealand Wars and more recently were found to safeguard food and water storage sites or wells, food storage pits (especially k?mara), and small integrated plantations, maintained inside the p?. Recent studies have shown that in most cases, few people lived long term in a single p?, and that iwi maintained several p? at once, often under the control of a hap? (subtribe). The area in between p? were primarily common residential and horticultural sites. A tourist attraction of authentic p? engineering is Auckland's Maungawhau / Mount Eden.