Shifting Grounds

In a city that has forgotten and erased much of its history, there are still places where traces of the past can be found. Deep histories, both natural and human, have been woven together over hundreds of years in places across Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland, forming potent sites of national significance.

This stunning book unearths these histories in three iconic landscapes: Pukekawa/Auckland Domain, Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill, and the Otuataua Stonefields at Ihumatao. Spanning the length of human occupation at these sites, Shifting Grounds offers rich, kaleidoscopic perspectives on particular moments at each, exploring how their histories have evolved over time.

Approaching landscapes as an archive, it delves deeply into specific places and examines the broader questions that arise from them. Places such as the early Māori gardens of the Otuataua Stonefields, Te Wherowhero's cottage in the Auckland Domain, the Ihumatao mission station, John Logan Campbell's olive grove, Chinese market gardens in the Domain, and sites of remembrance on Maungakiekie allow us to understand histories that have not made it into our history books or memorials, but which still resonate through Auckland and beyond.

Lucy Mackintosh's richly illustrated book provides a rare historical assessment of Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland's past, with findings and stories that deepen understanding of New Zealand history.