An early engagement with town planning: Māori and the Commission to inquire and report upon the necessity or advisability of establishing model villages on the sites of the present villages of Ohinemutu and Whakarewarewa in 1926

The history of state-sanctioned planning is generally urban and commences in the early twentieth century. It is a history in which Indigenous people remain relatively invisible until the 1980s. By the 1920s, New Zealand’s Indigenous people, Māori, despite having lost much of their land, remained a visible presence in society. In Rotorua, the traditional Māori villages of Ohinemutu and Whakarewarewa were central to the tourism industry, and were sites of important economic activity for Ngati Whakaue and Tūhourangi. In 1926, Ngati Whakaue and Tūhourangi took an active part in a Commission of Inquiry into the housing in their villages, in an attempt to improve their liveability. The Commission sought to apply town planning principles to their work at a time when town planning legislation had only recently been introduced. This appears to be an early involvement of Indigenous people with town planning and an important part of New Zealand’s planning history.