3.4 NGĀTI KŌATA The statements of association of Ngāti Kōata are set out below. These are statements of the particular cultural, spiritual, historical and, traditional association of Ngāti Kōata with identified areas. For the avoidance of doubt, neither Te Pātaka o Ngāti Kōata, nor a member of Ngāti Kōata, is precluded by this part from stating that Ngāti Kōata has an association with a Statutory Area that is not described in a Statutory Acknowledgement or Statement of Association, and the content and existence of a Statutory Acknowledgement or Statement of Association does not limit any such statement. The length or content of the Ngāti Kōata association with a particular area should not be taken by thir d parties, especially Crown ag encies or Territorial Local Authorities, as an indication of relative merits or mana to an area. Only Ngāti Kōata can determine its mana and kaitiaki status at any wāhi or whenua. ASKEWS HILL QUARRY SITE IN TAIPARE CONSERVATION AREA This wāhi tapu incorporates the Ngāti Kōata cultural values of take tuku, take tūpuna and take ahi kaa roa and is intrinsc to our cultural identity. It is an area where our i tūpuna lived and exercised mana. The Askews Hill quarry site in the Taipare Conser vation Area is significant to Ngāti Kōata due to the significance of argillite and pakohe to Ngāti Kōata. The Nelson mineral belt extends from Rangitoto to Askew‘s Hill, along the Whangamoa ranges and the Maitai Valley and stretches to the south into Te Waipounamu. For Ngāti Kōata, the Mineral Belt is very sacred, as it was used by tūpuna as a path of healing. There are at least fourteen known sites alon g this mineral belt where high quality pakohe was worked by Ngāti Kōata tūpuna, one of which is the Askews Hill site. Pakohe stones were valuable taonga to Ngāti Kōata. They produced top quality tools and weapons. Argillite was a highly valued taonga and quarried at many sites, including Askews Hill, because it could be flaked easily to make adzes and drill points. Some of the quarries in this mineral belt provided source material for argillite artefacts found in many of the ancient occupation and burial sites throughout Aotearoa. The trading and distribution of adzes and other cultural instruments manufactured from the argillite from quarries on Askews Hill and other mineral belt sites was Aotearoa wide, a reflection of the significance of the resource to the wider Maori population. The quarries where argillite was mined and adzes flaked out of the rock on Rangitoto are almost one thousand years old. The methodology employed to quarry the rock included having large stream boulders carried up to the quarry site where they were used to shatter an exposed argillite face. Quartering hammers were then used to produce quarry blanks ready for transport, while a knapping hammer produced the flaked first outline. Finally the adze was ground to smoothness on a slab of wetted sandstone. Wooden wedges were also driven into cracks and crevasses in the rocks and water poured over the wedges causing them to swell and split the rock. Ngāti Kōata associations with the Askews Hill quarry site in the Taipare Conservation Area are central to our history, identity, kaitiakitanga and mauri. This wāhi incorporates our cultural values; Ngāti Kōata has mana, whakapapa associations and history at the Askews Hill quarry site in the Taipare Conservation Area. Ngāti Kōata have tikanga and kawa, including tapu and noa at the Askews Hill quarry site in the Taipare Conservation Area. Te Tau Ihu Statutory Acknowledgements Page 54 of 163