Port Levy (Māori: Koukourarata) is a long, sheltered bay and settlement on Banks Peninsula in Canterbury, New Zealand. The current population is under 100, but in the mid-19th century it was the largest Māori settlement in Canterbury with a population of about 400 people.[1] It is named after Solomon Levey, an Australian merchant and ship owner who sent a number of trading vessels to the Banks Peninsula area during the 1820s.
The bay was settled by the Ngai Tūāhuriri sub-tribe of Ngāi Tahu, and the chief Moki named the bay "Koukourarata" after a stream in Wellington that recalls the birth of his father, Tu Ahuriri.[2] It was also the home of Tautahi, the chief after whom the swampland area Ōtautahi was named – now the site of the city of Christchurch.
Koukourarata marae, a marae (tribal meeting ground) of Ngāi Tahu and its Te Rūnanga o Koukourarata branch, is located at Port Levy.[3] It includes the Tūtehuarewa wharenui (meeting house).[4]
The earliest Anglican church in Canterbury was thought to have been built at Port Levy. This occurred at some time in the 1840s. A stone memorial marks the site. It is inscribed “Te Turanga o te whare karakia tuatahi o te hahi mihinare o Waitaha. On this site stood the first Anglican church in what was to become Canterbury.”[5] The current St Paul's Anglican church was built in 1888.[6]
References
^"Koukourarata". Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
