Aotearoa in 1810

About this map

How to read it

This is the map behind Taua, a grand-strategy game I'm building about Aotearoa in 1810. It shows the world the game opens on: who held each place, roughly where hapū territories ran, what covered the land, and the landmarks and tracks that shaped movement.

It is shared for academic review, not for wider publication. Please don't reproduce it. It is working research, built from published sources: Waitangi Tribunal reports, the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara, Crosby's The Musket Wars, Kelly's Tainui, Taylor's Lore and History of the South Island Maori, Native Land Court minutes, the LINZ gazetteer and others, cited place by place.

What the marks mean

• Unconfirmed (dashed amber edge): the 1810 holder is a reasoned inference, often from neighbouring places, and still needs a source.
• Approximate location (faded): the source names the place but not exactly where it sat.
• Placeholder site: a place the game needs whose identity is still being researched.
• Consult (red edge on a landmark): a site of particular significance. It won't be modelled without the agreement of the hapū who hold its kōrero.

Limits

• The map is drawn in the game's own space, which is warped from true geography. Don't measure distances or take positions from it.
• Territories are modelled. Each block of land follows the 1810 holder of its nearest place. They are not boundary claims.
• Populations are model estimates, and the plant cover is reconstructed from potential vegetation and early maps.
• Wrong is worse than blank, so where the sources say nothing, the map leaves a gap.

If you hold kōrero about a place, or see something wrong, I'd be grateful to hear from you: brewer.lewis@gmail.com.

Data exported . . Base map built from LINZ Topo50 data (CC BY 4.0) and Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research potential vegetation.