The name Otara honours a mythological figure named Tara from Te Akitai traditions, or O-tara-mai-nuku, a once-famous rangatira of the area, or Tara Te Irirangi, a nineteenth century Ngai Tai leader who lived at Umupuia, near Maraetai.
‘Otara’ appears in published sources from the 1850s onwards, referring to an area around the Otara Creek, across the Tamaki River to the south-east of Otahuhu. Otara thus has a long shared history with the neighbouring areas of Papatoetoe, East Tamaki and Flat Bush.
Take a look at a selection of events taking place in the Otara community from 1955 to 2010 and beyond, in our latest addition to Manukau Topics,
An Otara timeline.