Otakou

The settlement of Ōtākou lies within the boundaries of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is located 25 kilometres from the city centre at the eastern end of Otago Peninsula, close to the entrance of Otago Harbour.

Though a small fishing village, Ōtākou is important in the history of Otago for several reasons. The name 'Ōtākou' is thought to come from Māori words meaning either "single village" or "place of red earth". Prior to the standardisation of Māori spelling in the 1840s, the name was written as 'Otago', reflecting its pronunciation in a local southern Māori dialect. This prestandardised form was adopted by European settlers as the name for the surrounding area, the Otago region, and it is commonly mistaken as a European corruption of 'Ōtākou'.

The name originally referred to the channel off Wellers Rock but was transferred to the lower harbour as a whole, the port, the nearby Māori settlements and the Weller brothers' whaling establishment, one of the region's oldest European settlements, which had been founded in 1831. The old Māori names for the Māori settlements were Te Ruatitiko, Tahakopa, Omate and Ohinetu.

Ōtākou was probably also the "city of Otago" burnt by Captain Kelly in December 1817 during the Sophia incident.

Prior to the arrival of European settlers, the place was a prominent Māori settlement, and it is still the site of Otago's most important marae. By the early 19th century, the three Māori iwi of Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Māmoe and Waitaha had blended into a single tribal entity. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed nearby in 1840 on the H.M.S Herald by two important chiefs, who were descended from all three tribes. Ōtākou remains an important centre of Ngāi Tahu life.

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