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Maori are the first people of the land, who arrived in this land nearly a thousand years ago, placing their creation traditions on the landscape and living off the land and its resources. 

The takata whenua (people of the land) associated with the Dunedin area originate from the Waitaha, Kati Mamoe and Kai Tahu tribes, who over time through conquest, marriage and peace alliances merged and are generally referred to now as Ngai Tahu (Kai Tahu in the southern dialect).  The wider Dunedin region was the site of many settlements and temporary camp sites.  Today the traditional settlement areas for Kai Tahu are located at Otakou (Otago Peninsula) and Puketeraki (Karitane), within close proximity of the traditional fortified pa of former times, Pukekura (Taiaroa Head) and Huriawa (Karitane).

First contact for Kai Tahu with Europeans occurred in the early 1800s with the arrival of sealers and whalers, and eventually the establishment of a permanent whaling station in 1831 at Otakou.  Kai Tahu welcomed the opportunity to trade with Europeans, readily adopting new technologies and crops that grew here in the south.  However along with benefits of contact came diseases unknown to Maori, which greatly reduced the local population.  

The Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of this nation, was signed at Otakou in June 1840 by the chiefs Karetai and Korako.  In July 1844, the Otakou chiefs sold the "Otakou Land Block", which encompasses the entire Dunedin urban area, to the New Zealand Land Company, opening the way for the first "settlers" to emigrate to this city and region.  Kai Tahu reserved lands for their own use.

The official Dunedin Coat of Arms, depicting a Scottish settler and a Maori chief, is a reflection of this period.

Kai Tahu were largely subsumed by the new arrivals whose numbers multiplied many times over, plus the state policy of assimilation resulting in the marginalisation of Kai Tahu culture and identity.  However a renaissance of cultural strength and identity in the last 30 years has seen the place of takata whenua recognized and valued in the life and times of the city and its environs.  

The Kai Tahu culture and their concepts are indigenous and add a texture to civic and environmental management that reflects the spiritual linkage of the first peoples to the land and resources. 

Kai Tahu are the "Kaitiaki", a responsibility of the first peoples to exercise guardianship over the land, sea and water resources that sustain the generations, to honour their past and protect the opportunities for future generations to enjoy what we have today. 

The term kaitiaki is legally recognised in resource management legislation in New Zealand, which enables Mana Whenua certain rights in relation to natural and physical resources. In Dunedin, Kai Tahu have produced a recognised natural resources planning document and have a relationship with local councils to ensure input into land and sea-based management and development.

References

Bill Dacker, Te Mamae Me Te Aroha / The Pain and the Love: A History of Kai Tahu Whanui in Otago, 1844-1994

M Goodall; G Griffiths, Maori Dunedin (Otago Heritage Books, Dunedin, 1980)