The Three Witches of Auckland

In this week's episode, we're looking at the Three Witches of Auckland Domain  from New Zealand/Maori mythology and folklore. How does this ghost story link to the European colonisation of New Zealand? What do these witches really embody in the statues of them? Find out this episode!!

Transcript

 INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

I’m back from my slight celebrity trip to the Podcast Show last week, which was a crazy experience. I didn’t realise how introverted I was until I had to meet people face to face to be completely honest, but I’m glad I conquered my fears. I also managed to spend half an hour chatting to Chris Broad from Abroad in Japan, which was amazing and I was very starstruck.

It’s also the Jubilee weekend over here in the UK at the moment. It's a bank holiday Thursday and Friday to celebrate 70 years of good Queen Lizzy on the throne, so depending on how much you like the monarchy, huge events are happening all over the UK to celebrate or mourn I suppose. I’m personally not too bothered by the monarchy, it’s just something that’s there - so I’m just enjoying my time off before starting my new job on Monday.

DESCRIPTION:

Anyway, this week we’re heading over to New Zealand for the first time ever and looking at something a little different, and that’s because I’m not too sure if these count as monsters to be honest, they’re definitely more a supernatural being, but I think that counts. So what are they? They are the Three Witches of Auckland. 

So if you’re a regular listener of the podcast, you’ll know that I have a structure of describing them, then talking about their origins - however, with this ‘monster’, they’re going to be very basic in description, so the origin and descriptive parts might merge into one - so please bear with me. 

This all starts with a story, and I think that’s probably the best way to kind of tell this one. This all starts in the largest park in New Zealand, in the city Auckland called Auckland Domain - which is one of the most visited places in New Zealand, even beyond the capital of Wellington, although I can say that the wonderful little set town of Hobbiton from Lord of the Rings is between the two on the north island. 

Specifically though, if you head into Auckland Domain, and head over to Garden Road where there’s a place called Watson’s Bequest - there is a pond. Next to the pond, there is a beautiful statue of three witches, these witches were hung under the tree where this statue sits.

Anyway, sorry I got a bit wild on geography there - but in Auckland Domain for the last 200 years, there have been reports of cackling and long tall shadows growling and hissing at passersby. These are the apparent ghosts of the Three Witches of this park and the main culprits of the episode today. 

It was said that these three witches were hanged for witchcraft back in the 1800’s, and have since then haunted the Domain in the evenings, appearing as these long haunting shadows that scratch and laugh at passersby in the night. There’s apparently a definite way to see them by driving up the road, and turning your car lights off whilst looking at the statue, and you’re meant to see the shadows of the ghosts darting between the trees.

We don’t know anything specific about the witches and who they were sadly, not even if they were witches themselves - they were most likely just normal women who didn’t fit into societal norms, much like the European witch hunts. 

ORIGIN:

We don’t really have any etymology for this, although we do have some that links into the history around this park and the witches story from Maori culture. 

So how did this story come about? Well the park itself is one of the oldest in New Zealand, with a massive tourist pull due to the Auckland War Memorial Museum plonked in the middle of it - so it’s not just some random park either. 

This park however, is actually more significant than that too. The early history is that this park was named Pukekawa by the Maori people, as it was considered a great place of land - known as an isthmus - which is a piece of land surrounded by water between two other pieces of land, kind of linking them. It is also was a volcanic site, and sits the side of an inactive volcano, so the Maori used this site as a perfect point of defence and settlement. 

However, this is where the etymology part comes in, because the English translation for Pukekawa means ‘hill of bitter memories’ and that name was upheld during tribal battles between the Ngapuhi and Ngati Whatua tribes, which were immensely bloody. 

As in most cultures, the sites where any large number of people had their bloodshed is associated with ghosts and spirits, so this might have originally started the area's association with death and ghosts too. 

Anyway, in 1642 the Europeans made their way over to New Zealand - bringing over their culture and traditions and obviously desecrating anything native - because that’s what Europeans did unfortunately. They brought over their customs too, and during the 1600-1800’s we had the witchcraze, which we also took over to New Zealand. 

It’s believed that during this time, the persecution of these three women of Auckland Domain happened due to the introduction of this cultural murder obsession and the park was even eventually sold to the Europeans by the Nguti Whatua tribe in the 1840s. So we imagine the murder of these women was after this fact, as they would not have access to this land beforewise. 

The statues that now sit in this historic site were built in 1955 by the sculptor W.H. Wright for the centennial or 100 year anniversary of the park, and doesn’t actually have a name. However, although they’re referred to as the Three Muses or the Three Graces from Greek mythology, they’re most often referred to as the Three Witches as it does sit very nicely under the hanging tree. But the actual statue is meant to represent the personifications of strength, wisdom and fertility, which brought Auckland to prosperity, and it does actually include a male statue in the middle of the statue, so to link it to Three Witches when it’s not even three women is pretty wild. 

The site has gone on to host cricket and rugby games, exhibitions, a water reservoir and botanical gardens since the 1800’s - so if you’re out in New Zealand, I would really recommend giving this park a visit - especially after dark!

There’s no actual record of when the rumours of haunting began, but based on the bloody history of this park, I can imagine this has been around for longer than we may think.

But it’s a ghost story that has lasted generations within Auckland - with the story being passed down from elders about staying away from the park past dark. It’s still commonly used for kids to show their bravery or as a dare, so it’s definitely still prevalent in modern culture, which I think is so great!

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Moving onto cultural stuff, it’s an interesting one this week. 

For art, we’re certainly looking at more modern stuff as this is a later ghost story. This is also very unspecific I’m afraid - there’s not much specifically to these three in NZ but we have Parcas by Gabriel Grün from 2007, The Three Witches from MacBeth by Daniel Gardner from 1776, The Three Witches by Henry Fusilli from 1783 - but my favourite by far is actually some independent art, which is by the fantastic Jessica Lauser from last year’s Inktober. It is absolutely beautiful and is actually of the three Witches from Auckland, so big props here.

I said this earlier, but there is a great statue of the Three Witches in the Auckland Domain, and it’s still standing, you can go visit it! It is absolutely gorgeous and actually, pretty massive - so big recommendation for going to see that if you can. It was also the place that Britain beat New Zealand in the first ever rugby league match back in 1910, and they’ve only let us win 8 matches since then - so that’s pretty cool for you sport fans.

There’s not any specific modern media bits with the Three Witches in, however, there are many with triple lots of witches in - which is such a fun little trope so that’s where my references here will be in reference to. 

In movies, we have quite a few like; Clash of the Titans, Hercules, Shrek, Sleeping Beauty, The Black Cauldron, The Craft, The Witches of Eastwick, Hocus Pocus & Throne of Blood.

For TV, we have; Doctor Who, Legends of Tomorrow, Charmed, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Free Spirits, Once Upon a Time, Gargoyles, The Simpsons, Winx Club & Steven Universe.

In video games, we have ones such as; Banjo-Tooie, God of War 2, Loom, Hades, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Shin Megami Tensei & Final Fantasy X-2. 

My book recommendation this week is always going to be Will Shakespeare’s MacBeth with any witches involved, it’s probably the lead fiction at least on this topic. Then for facts, I would really recommend The Origins of Wizards, Witches and Fairies by Simon Webb for a fantastic overview of how witches and wizards came into the folklore of so many different cultures worldwide. Lastly for all you Maori mythology fans, have a look at Maori Myth and Legend by A.W Reed, it’s got some great Maori myths in here and it’s a great book for this little known mythos on the Western side of the world.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

I love a good ghost story, especially ones about witches and honestly, considering how in depth this one is with its history and the ghostly and Maori legend part really being the only mythology part of this story. 

However, knowing the history of witch hunts across the world - the idea that witches are haunting the park after most likely being unjustly hung is pretty fair. Usually in ghostly stories that have been actually researched, it’s all due to the spirit having some unfinished business or betrayal going on in their former life - which we can definitely see in this story considering it’s highly unlikely they were actually witches. 

The European and Maori influence on this story in contrast to each other is so interesting to me - the idea that the site is sacred but was desecrated by the Europeans coming over and hanging native women on it - that’s such good content for a story. 

However, I’m very on the fence about the existence of ghosts - so for me, this one is most likely people scaring themselves after hearing the story and very well placed shadows. But who knows, do you think these Witches haunt this park? Let me know on Twitter, I’d love to hear what you think!

OUTRO: 

Well, that one was a little different than what we’d usually cover, a bit more ghosty and a little bit more historically ingrained than what we’d usually go for at least. But hey, glad we finally got over to our lovely pals in New Zealand, and I’ve got some more up my sleeve soon so don’t you worry.

Next week, we’re back over in Ol’ Blighty for a monster that technically doesn’t belong in folklore or mythology, but I couldn’t help but cover it because it’s just too fantastic - grab your man flesh next Thursday for the Orc. 

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.