A colonial story of land cultivation

The farm lies alongside the traditional Ngāi Tahu coastal travel route between lakes Wairewa and Waitarakao (Washdyke Lagoon), which connected Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū (Banks Peninsula) with the kāinga of South Canterbury, including the prominent pā of Te Waiateruatī. The 216-hectare Tahu o Tao farm, south of the Rakaia river mouth, is named after a traditional kāinga mahinga kai located on the coastline nearby. In the 1879 Smith-Nairn Commission, Ngāi Tahu kaumātua gave evidence that foods gathered there included tuna (eel), paraki (smelt), kōkopu (native trout), pānako (fish sp.), inaka (whitebait), tutu, wharetata and poketara (sp. of mushroom).

Originally there were 27 owners. Now there are 300 shareholders, who all whakapapa to Ngāi Tahu, spread throughout New Zealand and offshore. One vision of the Incorporation is to own 27 farms, one for each of the original owners.

The Crown, represented by Kemp, agreed to provide adequate reserves to ameliorate the small purchase price and money paid in instalments. The Crown didn’t keep its side of the deal, resulting in Te Kerēme, the Ngāi Tahu Claim. In 1877 as a result of protests by Ngāi Tahu at the inadequacy of reserves, the Kaiapoi Native Reserves Act granted a number of blocks of land to people who had been inadequately provided for in earlier awards. One of the reserves set aside was the land which would become Tahu o Tao.