Otara
Encyclopedia
Ōtara is a suburb of Auckland
, New Zealand
, situated 18 kilometres to the southeast of the Auckland CBD
. Ōtara lies near the head of the Tāmaki River
(actually an arm of the Hauraki Gulf
), which extends south towards the Manukau Harbour
. Contemporary Ōtara is surrounded by the suburbs of Ōtāhuhu, Middlemore, Mangere, Papatoetoe, Wiri, Manurewa, Manukau Heights, Flatbush, Botany Pakuranga and Howick. The suburb is noted for its proportion of Pacific Islander
residents, who make up 68% of the Ōtara population and its unusually low number of New Zealand European
(Pākehā
) residents (13%).
, Ō-Tara means ‘the place of Tara’ or ‘territory belonging to Tara’, who was a Rangatira
(or Māori Chief) of the area. 'Ōtara' is in turn the shortened form of Te Puke Ō Tara (literally; ‘The Hill of Tara’); known also for a time as Smales Mount. Te Puke Ō Tara was one of Ōtara's prominent volcanic cone
s, and prior to European settlement in the area was the site of a scoria
cone Pā
. Like most of Auckland, the Ōtara landscape is volcanic in origin and forms a part of what is known as the East Tāmaki volcanic field, with Te Puke Ō Tara and Mātanginui (Greenmount) having been the dominant cones of Ōtara. Mātanginui was also a Pā site, and the areas surrounding both Pā are thought to represent the densest area of pre-European settlement in East Tāmaki, favoured for rich volcanic gardening soils and fresh water springs.
The tāngata whenua
of Ōtara are the local iwi
known as Ngāi Tai
(also called Ngāti Tai). Ngāti Tai are said to have originated as a distinct iwi identity on the eastern coastline of Auckland shortly after the Tainui
waka
called there in about the mid-14th Century. According to Ngāi Tai tradition, Te Puke Ō Tara and Ōtara are named after the Ariki
(Paramount Chief) of Ngāi Tai known as Tara Te Irirangi, who lived from the late 18th Century until 1852. An earlier name applied to the area was Ngā Kopi Ō Toi ('The Karaka Berries of Toi'), named for a Karaka
grove said by tradition to have been brought to Tāmaki from the Chatham Islands
and planted in the vicinity of Greenmount by Toi Te Huatahi
.
Over time, with the emergence and expansion of later hapū
and iwi identities, Ngāti Tai occupying the Ōtara area became closely interlinked by marriages with Te Akitai, Ngāti Tamaoho and Ngāti Kahu of the Tāmaki Makaurau
confederation of tribes known collectively as Te Wai ō Hua, and with the Hauraki
peoples of Ngāti Pāoa and Ngāti Tamaterā
, among others. The Ngāti Pāoa chieftain Hauauru noted in 1851 that by the mid-1830s Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Tamaterā and Te Akitai had competing interests in Ōtara. While all of these groups hold ancestral relationships to the Ōtara area, Ngāi Tai continue to retain recognised mana whenua
status.
(CMS) missionary William Thomas Fairburn began moves to establish a mission station at Maraetai
while attempting to purchase a vast tract of land from various iwi of Auckland. Brokered as "an act of Christian peacemaking" between warring tribes on the Tāmaki isthmus, Fairburn obtained "signatures" to the deed of purchase from over 30 Rangatira; few, if any of whom could read or write. Fairburn originally estimated the total area to contain 40000 acres (161.9 km²), but it was later surveyed as being around 83,000. When the purchase came under scrutiny from the CMS, in 1837 Fairburn signed a deed promising to return one third of the land to the original inhabitants (a transaction which never took place), and unsuccessfully attempted to offer another third to the Church. Following the Treaty of Waitangi
establishing New Zealand as a British Colony in 1840, Fairburn came under investigation from the new Government's Land Claims Commission. Following a protracted investigation (during which time Fairburn resigned from the mission), in 1848 the Commission disallowed Fairburn's original claim, awarding him instead a much smaller grant of just under 5500 acres (22.3 km²). The remainder of the land, including Ōtara, was retained by the Crown as "surplus land" to be onsold to European settlers. Following the protests of Hori Te Whetuki on behalf of Ngāi Tai, in 1854 the Commission granted a "Native Reservation" of just over 6000 acres (24.3 km²) at Umupuia
to "the chiefs of the Ngatitai" and paid them £500 compensation, on the condition that they sign an agreement to vacate all other lands within the original purchase boundaries, and order all other iwi to do the same.
European settlement of Ōtara began in earnest from the 1850s onwards, with most settlers of the wider East Tāmaki area being Scottish and Irish Presbyterians. The most prominent settler of Ōtara during this period was the Wesleyan missionary Reverend Gideon Smales. Smales had arrived from England in 1840, and upon his retirement moved to settle at East Tāmaki, purchasing a 400 acres (1.6 km²) block from the Government in 1855, which included Te Puke Ō Tara. Smales farmed the land at the foot of Te Puke Ō Tara and opened a quarry on the mountain; the entirety of which has since been destroyed. Mātanginui Pā was also largely destroyed by quarrying from 1870 onwards and is now the site of the Greenmount Landfill. 13 acres (52,609.2 m²) from the Smales Mount/Puke Ō Tara estate on the remains of the original cone now form reserve known as Te Puke Ō Tara Hampton Park, which includes a stone church built in the 1860s and the remains of extensive stone walls from Smales' farm, both constructed from the quarried scoria.
Farming and rural industries remained the dominant characteristic of Ōtara throughout the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Following World War II
, Ōtara was developed by the Auckland Regional Authority as a State Housing area.
The Village now houses a Kohanga Reo, a Maori language pre-school, a Koe Oaga Faka Niue - Fatamanu - pre-school, an alternative School for Boys and New Zealand's first Secondary/Tertiary College - Vaka Moana, an integral part of the Manukau Institute of Technology as well as anumber of Community groups
The suburb achieved a mild degree of worldwide fame with the one-off hit single How Bizarre
, by hip-hop artists OMC
. "OMC" stands for "Otara Millionaires' Club" - a tongue-in-cheek reference to the low socio-economic status of much of the suburb, Ōtara being one of the poorest parts of the Auckland region - Ōtara North being Auckland Region's suburb with the second lowest median income, at NZ$25,900 after Great Barrier Island
at NZ$25,100, and compared to an average of NZ$37,300 and the highest value of NZ$60,000.
Ōtara is also known for its Saturday morning 'Flea market
' held in the Ōtara shopping center car park next to Manukau Institute of Technology's
South Campus.
In the 1970s Prime Minister
Robert Muldoon
's immigration policies led to dawn raid
s on some Ōtara residents by police in the search for illegal overstayers from the Pacific Islands.
Ōtara long had some of the highest crime rates of the country, but recently a major action against the Tribesmen and Killer Beez gangs (in 2008), and 2010s increases in police force numbers in the area, combined with a community policing approach, have been credited with both reducing crime and establishing less hostile attitudes between the locals and the police.
and Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate
.
Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate consists of three schools. The Junior School catering for Years 1 - 6; the Middle School, Years 7 and 8; and the Senior School catering for Years 9 - 13. Hillary College, Bairds Intermediate and Clydemore Primary School are the three schools that now form Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate.
Ōtara is also home to Manukau Institute of Technology's
two main campuses.
Ōtara has nine primary schools, Bairds Mainfreight Primary School
, Dawson Road Primary School, East Tāmaki Primary School, Flat Bush School, Mayfield Primary School, Rongomai School, Saint John the Evangelist School, Wymondley Road School and Yendarra Primary School. Ōtara also has one intermediate school, Ferguson. It is also home to Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Piripono.
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, situated 18 kilometres to the southeast of the Auckland CBD
Auckland CBD
The Auckland CBD is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. Bounded by several major motorways and by the harbour coastline in the north, it is surrounded further out by mostly suburban areas...
. Ōtara lies near the head of the Tāmaki River
Tamaki River
The Tamaki River is, despite its name, mostly an estuarial arm and harbour of the Hauraki Gulf, within the city of Auckland in New Zealand. It extends south for 15 kilometres from its mouth between the Auckland suburb of Saint Heliers and the long thin peninsula of Bucklands Beach, which reaches...
(actually an arm of the Hauraki Gulf
Hauraki Gulf
The Hauraki Gulf is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a total area of 4000 km², and lies between the Auckland Region, the Hauraki Plains, the Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island...
), which extends south towards the Manukau Harbour
Manukau Harbour
Manukau Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in New Zealand by area. It is located to the southwest of the Auckland isthmus, and is an arm of the Tasman Sea.-Geography:...
. Contemporary Ōtara is surrounded by the suburbs of Ōtāhuhu, Middlemore, Mangere, Papatoetoe, Wiri, Manurewa, Manukau Heights, Flatbush, Botany Pakuranga and Howick. The suburb is noted for its proportion of Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander , is a geographic term to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands consist of:Polynesia:...
residents, who make up 68% of the Ōtara population and its unusually low number of New Zealand European
New Zealand European
The term New Zealand European refers to New Zealanders of European descent who identify as New Zealand Europeans rather than some other ethnic group...
(Pākehā
Pakeha
Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
) residents (13%).
Māori origins
In the Māori languageMaori language
Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
, Ō-Tara means ‘the place of Tara’ or ‘territory belonging to Tara’, who was a Rangatira
Rangatira
Rangatira are the hereditary Māori leaders of hapū, and were described by ethnologists such as Elsdon Best as chieftains . Ideally, rangatira were people of great practical wisdom who held authority on behalf of the tribe and maintained boundaries between a tribe's land and that of other tribes...
(or Māori Chief) of the area. 'Ōtara' is in turn the shortened form of Te Puke Ō Tara (literally; ‘The Hill of Tara’); known also for a time as Smales Mount. Te Puke Ō Tara was one of Ōtara's prominent volcanic cone
Volcanic cone
Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic formations. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and size of the fragments ejected during the eruption...
s, and prior to European settlement in the area was the site of a scoria
Scoria
Scoria is a volcanic rock containing many holes or vesicles. It is most generally dark in color , and basaltic or andesitic in composition. Scoria is relatively low in mass as a result of its numerous macroscopic ellipsoidal vesicles, but in contrast to pumice, all scoria has a specific gravity...
cone Pā
Pa
-Places:* Pâ, a town in Burkina Faso* Pâ Department, a department in Burkina Faso* PA postcode area, in Scotland* Province of Palermo, Italy* Palo Alto, California* Panama, ISO country code** .pa, the country code top level domain for Panama...
. Like most of Auckland, the Ōtara landscape is volcanic in origin and forms a part of what is known as the East Tāmaki volcanic field, with Te Puke Ō Tara and Mātanginui (Greenmount) having been the dominant cones of Ōtara. Mātanginui was also a Pā site, and the areas surrounding both Pā are thought to represent the densest area of pre-European settlement in East Tāmaki, favoured for rich volcanic gardening soils and fresh water springs.
The tāngata whenua
Tangata Whenua
Tāngata whenua is a Māori term of the indigenous peoples of New Zealand and literally means "people of the land", from tāngata, 'people' and whenua land.-Meanings:...
of Ōtara are the local iwi
Iwi
In New Zealand society, iwi form the largest everyday social units in Māori culture. The word iwi means "'peoples' or 'nations'. In "the work of European writers which treat iwi and hapū as parts of a hierarchical structure", it has been used to mean "tribe" , or confederation of tribes,...
known as Ngāi Tai
Ngai Tai
Ngāi Tai is a Māori tribal group in the area around Tōrere in the East Coast area of the North Island, New Zealand, and also at Clevedon near Auckland....
(also called Ngāti Tai). Ngāti Tai are said to have originated as a distinct iwi identity on the eastern coastline of Auckland shortly after the Tainui
Tainui (canoe)
In Māori tradition, Tainui was the name of one of the great ocean-going canoes in which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand, approximately 800 years ago. The Tainui waka was named for an infant who did not survive childbirth...
waka
Waka (canoe)
Waka are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel, to large decorated war canoes up to long...
called there in about the mid-14th Century. According to Ngāi Tai tradition, Te Puke Ō Tara and Ōtara are named after the Ariki
Ariki
An Ariki , ‘Ariki , Aliki , Ali‘i , Ari'i or ‘Eiki is or was a member of a hereditary chiefly or noble rank in Polynesia.-Aotearoa Ariki:Political leadership or governance in Māori society has traditionally come from two...
(Paramount Chief) of Ngāi Tai known as Tara Te Irirangi, who lived from the late 18th Century until 1852. An earlier name applied to the area was Ngā Kopi Ō Toi ('The Karaka Berries of Toi'), named for a Karaka
Karaka (tree)
Karaka , is an evergreen laurifolia tree, of the family Corynocarpaceae, with large glossy leaves endemic to New Zealand, where it is widespread in mainly coastal situations, often forming a major component of coastal forest, although it is rarely a dominant tree...
grove said by tradition to have been brought to Tāmaki from the Chatham Islands
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...
and planted in the vicinity of Greenmount by Toi Te Huatahi
Toi (name)
Toi is a fairly common man's name in Māori and other Polynesian languages.The best known men named Toi are the following from Māori legendary history, who are sometimes confused with one another:...
.
Over time, with the emergence and expansion of later hapū
Hapu
A hapū is sometimes described as "the basic political unit within Maori society".A named division of a Māori iwi , membership is determined by genealogical descent; a hapū is made up of a number of whānau groups. Generally hapū range in size from 150-200 although there is no upper limit...
and iwi identities, Ngāti Tai occupying the Ōtara area became closely interlinked by marriages with Te Akitai, Ngāti Tamaoho and Ngāti Kahu of the Tāmaki Makaurau
Tamaki Makaurau
Tāmaki Makaurau is a New Zealand Parliamentary Māori electorate returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. From 1999 to 2002 the seat was called Hauraki....
confederation of tribes known collectively as Te Wai ō Hua, and with the Hauraki
Hauraki Gulf
The Hauraki Gulf is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a total area of 4000 km², and lies between the Auckland Region, the Hauraki Plains, the Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island...
peoples of Ngāti Pāoa and Ngāti Tamaterā
Ngati Tamatera
Ngāti Tamaterā is a Māori iwi of New Zealand,a major tribe within the Marutūahu confederation whose leaders have been prominent in Hauraki history and Marutūahu tribal affairs.-External links:*...
, among others. The Ngāti Pāoa chieftain Hauauru noted in 1851 that by the mid-1830s Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Tamaterā and Te Akitai had competing interests in Ōtara. While all of these groups hold ancestral relationships to the Ōtara area, Ngāi Tai continue to retain recognised mana whenua
Mana
Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian....
status.
European settlement
During the 1830s, Ōtara was among many present-day suburbs of Manukau & Auckland originally included within the boundaries of what became known as the "Tāmaki Block" or "Fairburn Purchase". Between 1836 and 1839, the newly arrived Church Mission SocietyChurch Mission Society
The Church Mission Society, also known as the Church Missionary Society, is a group of evangelistic societies working with the Anglican Communion and Protestant Christians around the world...
(CMS) missionary William Thomas Fairburn began moves to establish a mission station at Maraetai
Maraetai
Maraetai is one of the towns which make up Manukau city and is the easternmost suburb of greater Auckland in New Zealand.The closest town Beachlands lies approximately 4km to the West. Its name is Māori meaning "marae by the sea"...
while attempting to purchase a vast tract of land from various iwi of Auckland. Brokered as "an act of Christian peacemaking" between warring tribes on the Tāmaki isthmus, Fairburn obtained "signatures" to the deed of purchase from over 30 Rangatira; few, if any of whom could read or write. Fairburn originally estimated the total area to contain 40000 acres (161.9 km²), but it was later surveyed as being around 83,000. When the purchase came under scrutiny from the CMS, in 1837 Fairburn signed a deed promising to return one third of the land to the original inhabitants (a transaction which never took place), and unsuccessfully attempted to offer another third to the Church. Following the Treaty of Waitangi
Treaty of Waitangi
The Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand....
establishing New Zealand as a British Colony in 1840, Fairburn came under investigation from the new Government's Land Claims Commission. Following a protracted investigation (during which time Fairburn resigned from the mission), in 1848 the Commission disallowed Fairburn's original claim, awarding him instead a much smaller grant of just under 5500 acres (22.3 km²). The remainder of the land, including Ōtara, was retained by the Crown as "surplus land" to be onsold to European settlers. Following the protests of Hori Te Whetuki on behalf of Ngāi Tai, in 1854 the Commission granted a "Native Reservation" of just over 6000 acres (24.3 km²) at Umupuia
Duder's Beach
Duders Beach is located in Manukau City, New Zealand, to the east of Maraetai on the North Road from Clevedon.The land was purchased in 1866 from the original Maori owners Ngai Tai by Thomas Duder...
to "the chiefs of the Ngatitai" and paid them £500 compensation, on the condition that they sign an agreement to vacate all other lands within the original purchase boundaries, and order all other iwi to do the same.
European settlement of Ōtara began in earnest from the 1850s onwards, with most settlers of the wider East Tāmaki area being Scottish and Irish Presbyterians. The most prominent settler of Ōtara during this period was the Wesleyan missionary Reverend Gideon Smales. Smales had arrived from England in 1840, and upon his retirement moved to settle at East Tāmaki, purchasing a 400 acres (1.6 km²) block from the Government in 1855, which included Te Puke Ō Tara. Smales farmed the land at the foot of Te Puke Ō Tara and opened a quarry on the mountain; the entirety of which has since been destroyed. Mātanginui Pā was also largely destroyed by quarrying from 1870 onwards and is now the site of the Greenmount Landfill. 13 acres (52,609.2 m²) from the Smales Mount/Puke Ō Tara estate on the remains of the original cone now form reserve known as Te Puke Ō Tara Hampton Park, which includes a stone church built in the 1860s and the remains of extensive stone walls from Smales' farm, both constructed from the quarried scoria.
Farming and rural industries remained the dominant characteristic of Ōtara throughout the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Ōtara was developed by the Auckland Regional Authority as a State Housing area.
Notable citizens
- Len BrownLen BrownLen Brown is the Mayor of Auckland in New Zealand and the head of the Auckland Council. He won the 2010 Auckland mayoral election on 9 October 2010 and was sworn in as Mayor of Auckland on 1 November 2010, being the first to hold that title for the amalgamated Auckland 'Super City'...
, AucklandAucklandThe Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
Mayor - Pauly FuemanaPauly FuemanaPauly Lawrence Fuemana was a New Zealand singer, songwriter and musician. Fuemana was the lead singer of the music duo, OMC , which was best known internationally for the 1995 hit, "How Bizarre"...
of the duo OMCOMCOMC may refer to:* OMC , a New Zealand music group formerly known as Otara Millionaires Club* Olifant Manufacturing Company of South Africa, now known as Land Systems OMC* Old Man's Child, a Norwegian Black metal band... - Eric RushEric RushEric James Rush is a New Zealand rugby union footballer and a Rugby Sevens legend, arguably one of the greatest Sevens players to grace the game...
, Former All BlacksAll BlacksThe New Zealand men's national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, represent New Zealand in what is regarded as its national sport....
and 7'sNew Zealand national rugby union team (sevens)The New Zealand national rugby union sevens team is the New Zealand representative team in rugby union sevens and competes in the IRB Sevens World Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Commonwealth Games.-IRB Sevens:...
player - "Poly-Funk" Group ArdijahArdijah-History:Ardijah formed in 1979 and spent the early part of the Eighties playing the Auckland Pub and Club scene honing their skills as a covers band. They released their first single in 1986, Give Me Your Number which was followed in 1987 with Your Love Is Blind...
- Ruben WikiRuben WikiRuben Wiki, ONZM is a former professional rugby league footballer of the 1990s and 2000s. A New Zealand international representative centre-turned-prop forward, he retired with the record for most number of international appearances of any rugby league player in history...
, former KiwisNew Zealand national rugby league teamThe New Zealand national rugby league team has represented New Zealand in rugby league football since intercontinental competition began for the sport in 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the native bird of that name...
, RaidersCanberra RaidersThe Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership since 1982...
and WarriorsNew Zealand WarriorsThe New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand. They compete in the National Rugby League premiership and are the League's only team from outside Australia...
player, - Manu VatuveiManu VatuveiManu Vatuvei is a New Zealand rugby league player for the New Zealand Warriors in the National Rugby League competition. His position of choice is on the wing. He is the cousin of Japanese Rugby Union player Ruatangi Vatuvei. Vatuvei was a member of the New Zealand Kiwis squad that won the 2008...
, NRL rugby league player - Young SidYoung SidSidney Diamond , best known by his stage name Young Sid, is a New Zealand rapper and member of hip-hop group Smashproof. His 2007 debut album, The Truth, was named the Urban Album of the Year at the 2008 Māori Music Awards....
, hip-hop artist from the group SmashproofSmashproofSmashproof is a New Zealand Hip hop/Rap male group. Smashproof consists of Young Sid, Tyree and Deach. They are best known for the single "Brother" which spent eleven consecutive weeks at number one on the New Zealand RIANZ singles chart in 2009. The song "Brother" features singer Gin Wigmore.The...
Contemporary culture
Ōtara is the home of the "Ōtara Global Village" developing in the old relocated Baird's Intermediate school which was moved to the new site of the Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate and renamed SEHC Middle SchoolThe Village now houses a Kohanga Reo, a Maori language pre-school, a Koe Oaga Faka Niue - Fatamanu - pre-school, an alternative School for Boys and New Zealand's first Secondary/Tertiary College - Vaka Moana, an integral part of the Manukau Institute of Technology as well as anumber of Community groups
The suburb achieved a mild degree of worldwide fame with the one-off hit single How Bizarre
How Bizarre (song)
"How Bizarre" is the debut single of New Zealand musical group OMC from their debut album of the same name. It was released as a single in New Zealand in 1995 and internationally in 1996....
, by hip-hop artists OMC
OMC (band)
OMC, or Otara Millionaires Club, was a music group from Auckland, New Zealand best known for their 1996 hit "How Bizarre", named one of the greatest New Zealand songs of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association...
. "OMC" stands for "Otara Millionaires' Club" - a tongue-in-cheek reference to the low socio-economic status of much of the suburb, Ōtara being one of the poorest parts of the Auckland region - Ōtara North being Auckland Region's suburb with the second lowest median income, at NZ$25,900 after Great Barrier Island
Great Barrier Island
Great Barrier Island is a large island of New Zealand, situated to the north-east of central Auckland in the outer Hauraki Gulf. With an area of it is the fourth-largest island of New Zealand's main chain of islands, with its highest point, Mount Hobson, rising...
at NZ$25,100, and compared to an average of NZ$37,300 and the highest value of NZ$60,000.
Ōtara is also known for its Saturday morning 'Flea market
Flea market
A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...
' held in the Ōtara shopping center car park next to Manukau Institute of Technology's
Manukau Institute of Technology
Manukau Institute of Technology is a large institute of technology in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located on two campuses in Otara, 30 minutes from central Auckland and 15 minutes from the central area of Manukau.-Campus:...
South Campus.
In the 1970s Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Robert Muldoon
Robert Muldoon
Sir Robert David "Rob" Muldoon, GCMG, CH served as the 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1975 to 1984, as leader of the governing National Party. Muldoon had been a prominent member of the National party and MP for the Tamaki electorate for some years prior to becoming leader of the party...
's immigration policies led to dawn raid
Dawn raid
A police raid or dawn raid is a visit by the police, immigration officers or other officials in the early morning, hoping to use the element of surprise to arrest targets that they think may hide evidence, resist arrest, be politically sensitive, or simply be elsewhere during the day.-Germany:Dawn...
s on some Ōtara residents by police in the search for illegal overstayers from the Pacific Islands.
Ōtara long had some of the highest crime rates of the country, but recently a major action against the Tribesmen and Killer Beez gangs (in 2008), and 2010s increases in police force numbers in the area, combined with a community policing approach, have been credited with both reducing crime and establishing less hostile attitudes between the locals and the police.
Education
Ōtara has two main high schools, Tangaroa CollegeTangaroa college
Tangaroa College is a secondary school catering for years 9-13 in Otara, Manukau, New Zealand....
and Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate
Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate
Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate is a school in Otara, New Zealand. The school was founded by its namesake, Sir Edmund Hillary.There are three distinct schools on the one campus. The Ministry of Education institution number for the senior school is shown in the box to the right...
.
Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate consists of three schools. The Junior School catering for Years 1 - 6; the Middle School, Years 7 and 8; and the Senior School catering for Years 9 - 13. Hillary College, Bairds Intermediate and Clydemore Primary School are the three schools that now form Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate.
Ōtara is also home to Manukau Institute of Technology's
Manukau Institute of Technology
Manukau Institute of Technology is a large institute of technology in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located on two campuses in Otara, 30 minutes from central Auckland and 15 minutes from the central area of Manukau.-Campus:...
two main campuses.
Ōtara has nine primary schools, Bairds Mainfreight Primary School
Bairds Mainfreight Primary School
Bairds Mainfreight Primary School is a contributing primary school in Otara, a suburb of Manukau City, Auckland Region, New Zealand.The trucking and logistics firm Mainfreight Limited has sponsored the school since 1993...
, Dawson Road Primary School, East Tāmaki Primary School, Flat Bush School, Mayfield Primary School, Rongomai School, Saint John the Evangelist School, Wymondley Road School and Yendarra Primary School. Ōtara also has one intermediate school, Ferguson. It is also home to Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Piripono.