The area around Lake Wānaka was inhabited across the centuries by the Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe and Kāi Tahu iwi. Oral histories describe its creation by the ancestor Rākaihautū with his mighty kō. The name Wānaka implies a place of sacred learning.During colonial settlement under the governance of the Otago Provincial Council, Wānaka was renamed Pembroke, hortly after it was first surveyed by colonial settlers in 1863. The name was given in honour of the recently deceased English MP Sidney Herbert, son of the Earl of Pembroke and the British Secretary at War from 1845 (coinciding with the start of the Aotearoa New Zealand land wars). As a supporter of colonisation, he was also a founding member of the Canterbury Association three years later. The settlement reverted to its original name in 1940.

Waitaha ~ tribal group that occupied much of Te Waipounamu South Island before they were displaced by Kāti Māmoe

Kāti Māmoe ~ tribal group that was largely replaced by Kāi Tahu through intermarriage and conquest

Kāi Tahu ~ tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu South Island

iwi ~ tribes

kō ~ digging stick

He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)