Traditional History The earliest traditions associated with human occupation of the South Island refer to Rākaihautū, the captain of the Uruao waka, which brought the Waitaha tribe to New Zealand. Rākaihautū beached his waka at Whakatū (Nelson) and divided the new arrivals into two groups, with his son Rakihouia taking one party south along the coastline and Rākaihautū taking another south by an inland route. On his inland journey, Rākaihautū used his kō (a digging implement) named Tuhiraki, to carve out the major lakes and subsequent waterways of Te Wai Pounamu . There are also important tribal histories and traditions relating to the Kāhui Tipua, Hawea and Rapuwai peoples that are closely connected with the North Otago region. As described in WAI 27 The Ngāi Tahu Report; Waitaha were both a people and a collection of peoples. The name refers to all those who were there prior to the Ngāti Mamoe and Ngāi Tahu migrations. Known by European scholars as Moa Hunters, the culture associated with the hunting of the moa had already gone with the passing of these flightless birds when Ngāi Tahu first crossed Cook Strait. Many traditional stories of the North Otago region are connected to the voyaging waka Arai-Te-Uru. Rongo-i-tua was a voyager from Hawaiki who introduced kūmara to the Kāhui Tipua people of the South Island. The Kāhui Tipua people assisted Rongo-i-tua in the construction of a canoe in order for him to return to Hawaiki and secure additional kūmara for cultivation in the south. On its return to the South Island the Arai-Te-Uru encountered a fierce storm, and as described in J. Herries Beattie's retelling of collected accounts, the crew was lost overboard at the mouth of the Waitaki River. The canoe was blown further down the east coast of the South Island, and after losing much of its cargo of kūmara at a beach near Moeraki (still visible in the landscape, known as the Moeraki boulders) the waka was wrecked at Matakaea (Shag Point) where it lies petrified in the landscape. This waka was also known for carrying a sacred fire from Hawaiki known as Te Ahi-Tapu-a-Uenuku. This fire had been buried along the Waikato River, but later dug up by the explorer Tamatea-Pōkai-Whenua prior to his circumnavigation of Aotearoa aboard the waka Takitimu. In the traditional stories recorded by J. C. Andersen, the limestone outcrops of North Otago are the legacy of Tamatea-Pōkai-Whenua. During his exploration he traversed the land, using this sacred flame for making fire as he went; as the fires cooled, mounds of pale white ash were left in their place, which became the limestone features that are so prominent in the landscape of this region. Andersen was told how Tamatea-Pōkai-Whenua journeyed along the Waitaki River, and near the river: …he cut out a cave for a house, which he ornamented with carvings and paintings. He cut out this cave in order to preserve the tuhutuhi (writing) which was brought from Irihia (beyond Hawaiki) by Uru-whenua and his three brothers. The origins of Ngāi Tahu also have connections to the east coast of the North Island. Tahu Pōtiki, the eponymous ancestor of Ngāi Tahu, descended from the Ngāti Porou tupuna, Paikea. The descendants of Tahu Pōtiki moved south to Wellington, then continued their migration to Te Wai Pounamu. Today, Ngāi Tahu manawhenua is recognised over a large part of the South Island. Māori in the Awamoko Valley Both iwi history and archaeological evidence show occupation by Māori in the Waitaki district over an extended period, with the inhabitants using a wide variety of natural resources. While the date of the earliest settlement in the Waitaki area remains unknown, there was extensive settlement throughout the Waitaki Valley when the moa existed, as shown in the widespread archaeological remains of moa bones with evidence of human modification. Archaeologists have suggested that Awamoko’s rock art sites, together with those in wider North Otago and South Canterbury, date from the first 500 years of human occupation in New Zealand. Awamoko was also a stopping place on the inland journey up the Waitaki River. Te Puna-a- Maru at the junction of Awamoko Stream and the Waitaki was the first major stopping place after starting at Waitaki River Mouth. Nineteenth Century Recording of Rock Art in North Otago North Otago rock art sites were the earliest to be recorded by Europeans in New Zealand. The earliest example of such was at Takiroa, about 10 kilometres from the Awamoko Valley. Walter Mantell sketched the drawings at the Takiroa site in 1852, publishing them in 1868. The Rev. J. W. Stack also discussed Māori rock art when he presented his “Sketch of the Traditional History of the South Island Maoris” to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury at an 1877 meeting, and he noted that much of his information came from Peta Te Hone of Kaiapoi and other kaumātua of note from areas including Moeraki and Arowhenua. Stack’s sources attributed rock art to Ngāti Mamoe, who ‘…are said to have lived in caves, where traces of their occupation are shown in the rude drawings overlying those of a more ancient date’. James Herries Beattie published details in the Journal of Polynesian Society of his conversations with respected rangatira Taare Te Maiharoa, who spoke of the history of rock art. Te Maiharoa was regarded as one of the most knowledgeable experts on the early history of human occupation of the South Island, and shared information relating to rock art with Beattie: It was the people who came with Rākaihautū and their descendants who executed on sheltered cliff-faces the paintings, around the origin of which so much surmise has centred. My informant reckoned that the ancestors of these people had once had a system of writing very unlike English writing or printing, and that they lost much of the knowledge in coming from land to land, but still retained memories of it. These paintings represented their writing after they came to New Zealand, and preserved to them incidents of their history. Only the designs done in black are Waitaha work, and the method of making the paint has been traditionally handed down. There is a tree called monoao, which my informant had seen growing at Benmore (near Lake Hawea), and describes as like a macrocarpa, with branches that may grow many feet long and with leaves like matai (black pine). Probably no other kind of tree in New Zealand contains so much gum or resin (called ware in south, pia in north), and it will burn readily when green. The branches of this tree when burnt, give off a smoke, said my informant that would speedily turn white clothes black with soot. Screens were erected to direct the smokes against a tipaki (flax mat), and the soot was subsequently scraped into an ipu (carved wooden basin). Tarata trees would be chipped and the gum collected, and rautawhiri berries gathered. These berries or seeds were smashed and tightly squeezed into a whitau (flax bag) and hung by the fire, when the oil from them would drip into the ipu. The oil of the weka (woodhen) was also an ingredient, and these four items were mixed in certain proportions, “not too thick nor too thin,” and the result, said my informant, was “an ink that would stand for ever”. The claim that the paint so obtained was indelible is substantiated by the state of preservation of the work, as some of the black paintings are probably over 1,000 years old. The red paintings, continued my informant, were done many generations later than the black, and were the work of Kati-Mamoe, who simply copied the Waitaha figures. Beattie reported that another well-known rangatira Henare Te Maire, agreed with the kōrero of Te Maiharoa. Twentieth Century Recording of Rock Art Although some early New Zealand ethnologists may have seen the drawings as ‘idle scribblings of nomadic Maori’ , recognition of its importance by the Pākehā community was reconsidered from the 1940s when the Department of Internal Affairs hired Theo Schoon to document the rock art sites of South Canterbury and North Otago. Schoon began recording the drawings, seeking to make a realistic copy of what he saw. Later documentation began to ‘show his own interpretation of the original works’. He also began to retouch the works, using a crayon to ‘add clarity’. In the 1960s the artist Anthony (Tony) Fomison was involved in the recording of many sites and extensively sketched the art. He also traced over many works, and although ultimately damaging them in the process, Fomison accepted the drawings as works of art in their own right, and unlike Schoon did not try and alter them. Fomison’s analysis grouped the drawings into late or early periods according to ‘subject matter, superimposition or from excavation of cave floors.’ He distinguished three stylistic periods: Early Polynesian, Classic, and European Contact. Recording of Rock Art in the Awamoko Valley In 1967 the archaeologist Michael Trotter and his team made an intensive survey of the Awamoko valley. The Awamoko drawings were found to be in an area of high rock drawing concentration that spanned between Waianakarua and the Waitaki River. Rock art was found on cliff faces, the walls and roofs of rock overhangs and narrow crevices. Awamoko’s art is drawn on limestone rock. Limestone is a soft rock and often weathered into geological formations like caves or overhangs which provided protection for the artist and their artwork. The rock also provided a large, light-coloured canvas allowing for creativity and freedom of expression not normally available in other traditional canvases such as wood, bone, or stone. Birds are an important subject in the art and come second only to humans in frequency of occurrence across the North Otago region. They are often naturalistic and may have been based on observation. Given the artistic similarity among rock art sites in the North Otago area, archaeologists believe it seems likely rock artists and their hapū roamed widely throughout the area. Rock Art and New Zealand Art Māori rock art has been described as the earliest New Zealand artwork, and the rock art sites of South Canterbury and North Otago referred to as “New Zealand’s oldest art galleries”. The Ngāi Tahu artist Ross Hemera has commented on the importance of rock art in informing his work, stating, “These drawings, for me, are manifestations of our tipuna. So when I go back to the rock shelters, when I’m visiting, these are the occasions when I feel closest to the spirit of my ancestors”. New Zealanders have long been influenced by their experience with Māori rock art. Theo Schoon’s employment by the Department of Internal Affairs in 1947 to document rock art was formative in the development of his own art. New Zealand artist Gordon Walters accompanied Schoon on visits to rock art sites and Tony Fomison was involved in the recording of many sites and extensively sketched the art at various sites. Some nineteenth century ethnographers suggested that a practical reason also existed for the drawings. Dr Thomas Morland Hocken noted: Stephenson tells me regarding the drawings in the cave at Duntroon and that on the farm adjoining, that the old chief, now dead, told him that he could not decipher them but that his father told him when he was a boy (say 70 or 80 years ago) that they related to landmarks or boundaries… Rock art has been also described as ‘The first language of Te Waipounamu’. The drawings can be seen as an early form of written language, and Haast at first thought ‘they might be a kind of hieroglyphic writing’. Herries Beattie recorded: My informant reckoned that the ancestors of these people had once had a system of writing very unlike English writing or printing, and that they lost much of the knowledge in coming from land to land, but still retained memories of it. These paintings represented their writing after they came to New Zealand, and preserved to them incidents of their history. The rock art sites of the Awamoko valley were revisited in 1997 as part of the Ngāi Tahu Māori Rock Art Project (SIMRAP), then led by Brian Allingham. The work resulted in a significant increase in the number of examples of recorded rock art, and this number was expanded upon again in 2017 re-surveying work undertaken by the archaeologists Shar Briden and Matthew Hill for SIMRAP. The cultural and archaeological landscape of the Awamoko Valley has 84 recorded art sites, and the Awamoko Rock Art Site is an important representative example with diversity of depiction, scale, and pigment used. The importance of recognising and conserving the surviving rock art in the South Island is articulated by former Ngāi Tahu Rock Art Trust board member - Francese (Mandy) Home, who has described her deep feelings for the art, explaining that; Rock art is part of our whakapapa, it is the direct link with our early tūpuna who walked this land centuries ago acquainting themselves with a new life and new land. For a while we lost the connection through colonisation (other iwi as well as European) however we never lost the connection to this ancient art and our sense of belonging to this whenua.

Current Description The Awamoko Rock Art Site is located within the limestone features of the Awamoko river in the Waitaki Valley. This area of North Otago, near the border of South Canterbury is rich with the limestone surfaces that are so often found to be used in Māori rock art. The Awamoko Rock Art Site is within the boundaries of a working farm, and is located near the farm’s border, amongst an outcrop of limestone boulders and caves that run approximately four kilometres along the northern boundary of the farm. Physical descriptions of each of the archaeological sites within the listing extent are as follows: I41/16 Drawing, Rock Shelter - SIMRAP 5.64 NZTM Grid Reference Easting: 1419565 Northing: 5023230 This shelter is formed by an overhang of a large boulder. On the underside of the boulder is a group of black drawings (including at least four profile humans and two bird forms). Six figures have been recorded. The art contains several naturalistic bird designs along with multiple stylistic human forms. The site record form from 1967 notes that the art had not been “retouched”. Some small fragments of moa bone and fresh-water mussel were noted by A. Fomison during his visits of the 1960’s. This site is described in the NZAA Site Record Form as “a small but important shelter”. I41/17 Midden, Drawing, Rock Shelter - SIMRAP 5.62 NZTM Grid Reference Easting: 1419578 Northing: 5023204 This small north-west facing shelter contains one rock art figure consisting of black curvilinear designs. Fresh-water mussel midden has been found on the floor of the rock shelter. I41/18 Cave/Rock Shelter - SIMRAP 5.82 NZTM Grid Reference Easting: 1419898 Northing: 5022845 Rock shelter containing linear fish forms and other line drawings. Five figures have been documented. Distinctive designs include a large black fish design, and several faded black tiki figures. I41/19 Drawing, Rock Shelter - SIMRAP 5.81 NZTM Grid Reference Easting: 1419923 Northing: 5022873 This shelter includes badly-flaked red painted drawing, overlain by black lines and a black form, and a black human figure. Seven figures have been documented. Distinctive designs include a large red, painted figure, and a red and black tiki figure. A fresh-water midden is also present. I41/20 Cave/Rock Shelter - SIMRAP 5.80 NZTM Grid Reference Easting: 1419927 Northing: 5022882 On an area on the downhill side of a boulder is a very low shelter containing fragments of six figures that have been documented. Distinctive designs include a tiki figure and a possible fish-like creature. Both black and red pigments have been used. I41/21 Cave/Rock Shelter - SIMRAP 5.79 NZTM Grid Reference Easting: 1419898 Northing: 5022908 This is a habitable shelter which includes faded black drawings – one human, on the north facing rock to the west of the shelter. Two black figures have been documented. One tiki figure and a design that possibly contains multiple birds. I41/28 Shelter Cave/Rock Shelter - SIMRAP 5.78 NZTM Grid Reference Easting: 1419934 Northing: 5023027 This shelter along the northern side of a rock outcrop contains both black and red drawings. Eight black fragmentary figures have been documented on the north face of a flat-topped boulder sitting at the foot of slope. The art includes several small bird figures and one mōkihi-like boat design. There is a midden nearby. Archaeologist Michael Trotter and his team excavated the midden in 1967. The team found fresh-water mussel shell, an oven or fireplace, and burnt stone. Orthoquartzite occurred in the oven. A piece of hematite was found. A few pieces of broken bird bone and a piece of charred moa bone were found in the ash of the oven. I41/29 Cave/Rock Shelter Cave like rock shelter where a trial hole found fresh-water mussel shell and moa bone. I41/30 Cave/Rock Shelter This is a small rock shelter in which a fresh-water mussel midden was found. I41/31- Cave/Rock Shelter This is a small shelter with a fresh-water mussel midden. I41/32 Cave/Rock Shelter This is a small shelter with a fresh-water mussel midden. I41/33 Cave/Rock Shelter In this small shelter a flake of obsidian was found. I41/34 Rock Shelter Small cave-like shelter with occupation evidence found including fresh-water mussel shells and charcoal. I41/35 Cave/Rock Shelter This site, close to a large rock, has an area of fresh water midden on the east side. I41/36 Cave/Rock Shelter - SIMRAP 5.60 NZTM Grid Reference Easting: 1419400 Northing: 5022760 This is a large shelter, with an area of midden. A 1967 test holes shows large quantities of fresh water shellfish, bird and dog bone, as well as lobster shell. Earlier finds included Dentalium (tusk) shells. Twelve rock art figures have been documented, containing both black and red fragments. It is worth noting that the original site record for this site did not identify any rock art, and it was only in 1997 when Brian Allingham conducted the first survey as part of the SIMRAP recording project that the rock art within this shelter was first identified. I41/37 Cave/Rock Shelter This is a small rock shelter containing fresh-water midden. I41/38 Cave/Rock Shelter Fragments of moa bone (not necessarily of Māori origin) were found in this shelter. In this shelter farmer and artist Burns Pollack found crayfish remains and a teka (dart head). I41/39 Cave/Rock Shelter This is a large shelter formed by the overhang of the cliff face. There is a midden on the floor and a talus midden on the slope outside the shelter. Oven stones and fresh-water mussel shells are visible on the floor and outside slope.