Māngere () is a major suburb in South Auckland, New Zealand, located on mainly flat land on the northeastern shore of the Manukau Harbour, to the northwest of Manukau City Centre and 15 kilometres south of the Auckland city centre. It is the location of Auckland Airport, which lies close to the harbour's edge to the south of the suburb. 

The area has been inhabited by Tāmaki Māori since early periods of Māori history, including large-scale agricultural stonefields, such as Ihumātao, and Māngere Mountain, which was home to a fortified pā. Te Ākitai Waiohua communities in Māngere thrived in the 1840s and 1850s after the establishment of a Wesleyan Mission and extensive wheat farms, until the Invasion of the Waikato in 1863. Māngere remained a rural community until the mid-20th Century, when Māngere became one of the largest state housing developments in Auckland.

Etymology

The name Māngere is a shortened form of the Māori language name Ngā Hau Māngere, a name given to the area by Taikehu, one of the rangatira of the Tainui canoe, referring to the gentle breezes in the area. The spelling of the area was inconsistent in English in the 19th century, with Māngere variously spelt Mangere, Mangerei or Mangare. The spelling Mangere became more consistently used after 1897, when the post office began using this spelling. In 2019, the name of the suburb was officially gazetted as Māngere, with a macron.

Central Māngere was traditionally known by the name Taotaoroa, or "The Extensive Plains".

Geography

Māngere is a peninsula of the Manukau Harbour, south of the Auckland isthmus. Many features of the Auckland volcanic field can be found around Māngere, most visibly Māngere Mountain, an 106-metre volcanic cone to the north-west. The oldest known feature is the Boggust Park Crater, which erupted an estimated 130,000 years ago, while the most recent feature is Waitomokia, which erupted around 20,300 years before the present. The low-lying volcanic features of the area, such as the Māngere Lagoon, Crater Hill, and Pukaki Lagoon were collectively known by the name Nga Tapuwae a Mataoho ("The Sacred Footprints of Mataoho") to Tāmaki Māori peoples, referring to the deity who was involved in their creation.

A number of waterways are found in the area, including the Tararata Creek and Harania Creek which drain into the Māngere Inlet in the north, and the Pūkaki Creek and Waokauri Creek in the south.

History

Māori history

The first evidence of Tāmaki Māori in the coastal Māngere area comes from the 14th century, with evidence of the first settlements later in the 15th century. The Pūkaki Creek formed an important part of the Waokauri / Pūkaki portage, connecting the Manukau Harbour and Tāmaki River via Papatoetoe, and was often used by Tāmaki Māori to avoid the Te Tō Waka and Karetu portages, controlled by the people who lived at Ōtāhuhu / Mount Richmond. Much of the coastal Manukau Harbour area was farmed using Polynesian stonefield agricultural techniques, such as the Ōtuataua Stonefields at Ihumātao.

In the early 18th century, Te Pane o Mataaho / Māngere Mountain was a major pā for the Waiohua, a confederacy of Tāmaki Māori iwi. The mountain complex may have been home to thousands of people, with the mountain acting as a central place for rua (food storage pits). Paramount chief Kiwi Tāmaki stayed at Māngere seasonally, when it was the time of year to hunt sharks in the Manukau Harbour. The southern slopes of Te Pane o Mataaho / Māngere Mountain were known as Taotaoroa, an extensive garden that sat between wetlands, and fed by the waters of three streams: Te Ararata (Tararata Creek), the Harania Creek and the Ōtaki Creek, a tributary of the Tāmaki River.

In the early 1740s, Kiwi Tāmaki was slain in battle by the Te Taoū hapū of Ngāti Whātua. After the battle, most Waiohua fled the region, although many of the remaining Waiohua warriors regrouped at Te Pane o Mataaho. The warriors strew pipi shells around the base of the mountain to warn against attacks, but Te Taoū warriors covered the pipi shells with dogskin cloaks to muffle the sound, and raided the pā at dawn. An alternate name for the mountain, Te Ara Pueru ("the dogskin cloak path"), references this event.

After the events of this war, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, a hapū created by the members of Te Taoū who remained near the Tāmaki isthmus, who intermarried with defeated members of Waiohua, settled the region. Originally the iwi were based on Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill, but after the death of paramount chief Tūperiri (circa 1795), the Māngere Bridge area and Onehunga became permanent kāinga (settlements) for Ngāti Whātua. The location was chosen because of the good quality soils for gardening, resources from the Manukau Harbour, and the area acting as a junction for surrounding trade routes. Māngere-Onehunga remained the principal residence of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei until the 1840s, before the iwi moved to Ōrākei.

When the Waiohua people began to re-establish themselves in the Tāmaki Makaurau area in the latter 18th century, most settled around the Manukau Harbour and South Auckland. A major iwi who formed in the area from these people was Te Ākitai Waiohua. By the 19th Century, most Tāmaki Māori peoples moved away from fortified pā and favoured kāinga closer to resources and transport routes. A kāinga called Te Ararata was found near modern central Māngere along the banks of the Tararata Creek, and the central Māngere area was used as an area for growing food, medicine and plants for weaving.

In the 1820s and early 1830s, the threat of Ngāpuhi raiders from the north during the Musket Wars caused most of the Tāmaki Makaurau area to become deserted. During this period, a peace accord between Ngāpuhi and Waikato Tainui was reached through the marriage of Matire Toha, daughter of Ngāpuhi chief Rewa was married to Kati Takiwaru, the younger brother of Tainui chief Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, and they settled together on the slopes of Māngere Mountain. Ngāti Whātua returned to the Māngere-Onehunga area by the mid-1830s, re-establishing a pā on Māngere Mountain called Whakarongo.

Colonial period and land confiscation

In January 1836 missionary William Thomas Fairburn brokered a land sale between Tāmaki Māori chiefs, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and Turia of Ngāti Te Rau, covering the majority of modern-day South Auckland between Ōtāhuhu and Papakura. The sale was envisioned as a way to end hostilities in the area, but it is unclear what the chiefs understood or consented to. Māori continued to live in South Auckland, unchanged by this sale. Fairburn was criticised for the sheer size of the purchase, and in 1842 the Crown significantly reduced the size of his land holdings, and the Crown partitioned much of the land for European settlers.

On 20 March 1840, Ngāti Whātua chief Apihai Te Kawau signed the Treaty of Waitangi at Orua Bay on the Manukau Harbour, inviting Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson to settle in Auckland, hoping this would protect the land and people living in Tāmaki Makaurau. In the winter of 1840, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei moved the majority of the iwi to the Waitematā Harbour, with most iwi members resettling to the Remuera-Ōrākei area, closer to the new European settlement at Waihorotiu (modern-day Auckland CBD). A smaller Ngāti Whātua presence remained at Māngere-Onehunga, as well as members of Te Uringutu, and the western banks of the Waokauri Creek were reserved by the Crown as a native settlement in the 1850s, around the Te Ākitai Waiohua kāinga.

In the late 1840s, a Wesleyan Mission was established at Ihumātao. The area flourished as a farming area primarily for wheat and oat crops, which were processed at a mill at Ihumātao. Until the 1860s, the Māori population of the Manukau Harbour and Waikato areas produced goods to sell or barter at the port of Onehunga. During this period, the Māori population of Māngere was significantly larger than the European population.

On 9 July 1863, due to fears of the Māori King Movement, Governor Grey proclaimed that all Māori living in the South Auckland area needed to swear loyalty to the Queen and give up their weapons. Most people refused due to strong links to Tainui, leaving for the south before the Government's Invasion of the Waikato. Six men remained in the Māngere area, in order to tend to the farms and for ahi kā (land rights through continued occupation). Lieutenant-Colonel Marmaduke Nixon, who settled on the shores of the Pūkaki Creek in the 1850s, arrested his neighbour, the Te Ākitai Waiohua rangatira Ihaka Takanini, who later died on Rakino Island.

European settlers continued to live in the area, often looting the abandoned settlements. In 1867, the Native Compensation Court returned 144 of the original 485 acres that had been seized by the crown. The remaining land was kept by the crown as reserves, or sold on to British immigrant farmers. Te Ākitai Waiohua began returning to the area in 1866, settling to the west of Pūkaki Creek and at Ihumātao.

Farming community

In 1862, the first local government was established in the area, with the formation of the Mangerei Highway Board. The first school, Mangere Central School, opened in 1859, and churches were built in central Māngere in 1874 and 1894. Māngere had become known as a wheat-producing area, and by the 1880s became known for dairy farming.  In October 1887, Ambury and English Ltd opened a dairy factory in the area, supplying milk from the dairy farms (which includes modern day Ambury Regional Park, and farms along Wallace Road and Creamery Road) to their stores on Karangahape Road and Ponsonby Road. The creamery closed in 1937, and in 1943 operations were sold to the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company. By 1915, Chinese New Zealand market garden were established around Māngere.

The Māngere area was primarily rural for the first half of the 20th century, except for the Māngere Bridge area, where the first suburban housing developed in 1875 after the construction of the first Māngere Bridge. Māngere East began to develop as a suburban area after the opening of the Otahuhu Railway Workshops in the late 1920s. The Pukaki Lagoon was drained and used as a speedway from 1928 until World War II, and by the 1950s Croatian immigrant Andrew Fistonich established the first vineyards in the area, which later grew to become Villa Maria Estates.

In the 1950s, Chinese New Zealand gardeners Fay Gock and Joe Gock began cultivating kūmara (sweet potatoes) at their farm beside the Pūkaki Creek, using plants donated to them by their neighbours at Pūkaki Marae. The Gocks developed a disease-resistant variety of kūmara that became the modern Owairaka Red variety.

State housing and suburban development

In 1958, the Mangere Aerodrome was chosen by the New Zealand Government as the site of a new purpose-built airport, to replace the RNZAF Base Auckland at Whenuapai served as the civilian airport for Auckland. The Auckland Airport opened in 1966. In 1962, central Māngere was chosen as a location for a large-scale state housing development. This followed Glen Innes and Ōtara as the third large-scale state housing development in Auckland aimed a low-income families, centred around a retail and community centre. By the 1980s, central Māngere had become one of the more economically deprived areas in New Zealand. By the early 2000s, Māngere had become a multicultural area of Auckland.

In 1997, State Highway 20 (commonly known as the Southwestern Motorway) extended south to Massey Road. The entire Western Ring Route project, connecting the Northwestern Motorway to the Southern Motorway was completed in 2017. In the 2010s, discussions began to create a light rail connection between the Auckland city centre to Māngere.

Demographics
Māngere covers  and had an estimated population of  as of  with a population density of  people per km2.

Māngere had a population of 21,363 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 2,067 people (10.7%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 2,613 people (13.9%) since the 2006 census. There were 4,317 households, comprising 10,407 males and 10,950 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.95 males per female, with 5,997 people (28.1%) aged under 15 years, 5,703 (26.7%) aged 15 to 29, 8,010 (37.5%) aged 30 to 64, and 1,650 (7.7%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 11.6% European/Pākehā, 16.1% Māori, 68.1% Pacific peoples, 17.5% Asian, and 1.0% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.

The percentage of people born overseas was 39.7, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 14.4% had no religion, 64.7% were Christian, 2.3% had Māori religious beliefs, 4.9% were Hindu, 7.7% were Muslim, 0.7% were Buddhist and 0.7% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 1,452 (9.4%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 3,582 (23.3%) people had no formal qualifications. 939 people (6.1%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 7,236 (47.1%) people were employed full-time, 1,647 (10.7%) were part-time, and 975 (6.3%) were unemployed.

Local government

The first local government in the area was the Mangerei Highway Board, which formed in 1862. Māngere for the 19th and early 20th Centuries, Māngere was a rural area within the Manukau County. Māngere Bridge and Māngere East were established as town districts in 1954 and 1955. In 1965, the area became a part of the Manukau City, In November 2010, all cities and districts of the Auckland Region were amalgamated into a single body, governed by the Auckland Council.

Māngere is a part of the Māngere-Ōtāhuhu local board area. The residents of Māngere elect members of the Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board, as well as two councillors from the Manukau ward to sit on the Auckland Council.

Sport and recreation

The Māngere Arts Centre Ngā Tohu o Uenuku is an Auckland Council owned and operated performing arts venue and gallery space.

The Mangere East Hawks rugby league club is based in Māngere at the Walter Massey Park.

The Manukau Rovers RFC rugby union club is also based in Māngere and competes in the Auckland Premier Competition.

The Mangere United football club is also based in Māngere and competes in the Auckland Football and NZ Football National League Competitions.

Marae

Māngere has three marae:

 Makaurau Marae and its Tāmaki Makaurau meeting house are affiliated with the Waikato Tainui hapū of Ngāti Paretaua, Te Ākitai and Ngāti Te Ata.
 Pūkaki Marae and Te Kāhu Pokere o Tāmaki Mākaurau meeting house are affiliated with the hapū of Ngāti Pare Waiohua from Te Ākitai Waiohua, and the hapū of Te Ākitai, Ngāti Te Ata and Ngāti Paretaua from Waikato Tainui.
 Mātaatua Marae and its Awanuiarangi meeting house are affiliated with the Ngāti Awa hapū of Ngāti Awa ki Tāmaki Makaurau.

Transport 

The original Māngere Bridge was built to link Mangere with Onehunga to its north while the isthmus of Auckland reaches its narrowest point, further to the east at Ōtāhuhu. Later, it provided a more direct route for traffic to and from Auckland Airport. Construction of a new bridge was the subject of one of New Zealand's longest-running industrial disputes, from 1978 until 1980. The bridge was finally completed in 1983. The Southwestern Motorway (State Highway 20), one of the two motorways running south from the isthmus, runs across the bridge and through Māngere.

Passenger train Southern and Eastern Line services run along the eastern edge of Māngere, stopping at Middlemore railway station. Further north at Massey Road is Māngere railway station, closed in 2011.

Frequent bus services (15 mins schedules) connect Māngere Town Centre to Sylvia Park via Otahuhu railway station (route 32) and to Botany Town Centre via Papatoetoe railway station and Ōtara (route 31). Connections can be made with Onehunga, Auckland Airport and Manukau Bus Station on (route 380) Note: The 313 runs on a more direct route between Onehunga, Māngere, Papatoetoe and Manukau but services are at 30 min frequencies.

Education
Mangere College is a secondary school  (years 9–13) with a roll of  students.

Sir Douglas Bader Intermediate School is an intermediate school (years 7–8) with a roll of  students.

Mangere Central School and Viscount School are full primary schools (years 1–8) with rolls of  and  students, respectively.

Jean Batten School and Nga Iwi School are contributing primary schools (years 1–6) with rolls of  and  students, respectively.
 
Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Māngere is a Māori-language area school (years 1–13) with a roll of  students.

Al-Madinah School is an area school (years 1–13) and Zayed College for Girls is a secondary school  (years 7–13) with rolls of  and  students, respectively. They are state-integrated Islamic schools on adjacent sites.

All these schools except for Zayed College are coeducational. Rolls are as of

Notable people
Valerie Adams – Olympic shot put champion
Frank Bunce – rugby union
Mark Hunt – mixed martial artist
David Lange – former Prime Minister
Jonah Lomu – rugby union
Colin Moyle – politician
Joseph Parker – boxer
Pene and Amitai Pati – tenors Sol3 Mio
Jason Taumalolo – rugby league
David Tua – heavyweight boxer
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck – rugby league
Kween Kong – Drag superstar, house mother and cabaret artist

References

Bibliography

External links

Photographs of Mangere held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections.
Photographs of Mangere held in Auckland War Memorial Museum heritage collections.
 

Suburbs of Auckland
Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board Area
Populated places around the Manukau Harbour