What's in a name? Should we rename NZ Aotearoa? / John Tamihere

This term “what’s in a name” is attributed to William Shakespeare, and in Māori terms, names and words are meaningful and have impact.

There is a Māori Whakatauki or saying; “the barb of the spear can be parried. The barb of the tongue can never be defended against.”

There are sayings from the English language such as “what’s in a name”, “a rose by another name”, and “sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me.”

Well, name calling does hurt.

The origin of the name New Zealand is sourced from the province Zeeland in the Netherlands and is the westernmost and least populous province. Hence Abel Tasman renamed and labelled Aotearoa New Zealand.

As was common with European colonising at the time, they named lands because they discovered them in the full knowledge that Māori were already here.

The province that New Zealand is named after was the foundation block for perfecting the slave trade from Africa, and in fact Holland was one of the last European countries to outlaw slavery in 1863.

There should be no surprise therefore that the apartheid practiced in South Africa and Rhodesia was founded in large part by Dutch immigrants.

In 2016 Nigger Hill, Nigger Stream and Nigger Head on the Canterbury Plains were changed to Kānuka Hill, Pukiho Stream and Tawhai Hill. Yep in 2016.

As Vice President of the Māori Party, I agree and accept that if fellow Kiwis want to call themselves New Zealanders, they are welcome to. That’s why the Māori Party have raised a petition to formally change our name to our name.

The Māori language was made the official language of this country by an Act of Parliament in 1987.

We are legally entitled to assert the name Aotearoa.

So in 2021 Aotearoa, Māori and other Kiwis have a right to determine the way in which they see themselves in a new global village and will define themselves as citizens from Aotearoa.
Who knows anything about the names of major cities in Aotearoa and why we call them after people who did not even visit our shores.

Lord Gisborne, Lord Auckland. They are not the lords of Tāmaki Makaurau or the lords of Te Tairawhiti.

They are individuals that provided nothing to our nation’s statehood, including Abel Tasman.
None of these people have had any impact on the evolution of our nationhood – apart from believing that they would have memorials between themselves for visiting entitlement, theft, rape and pillage on indigenous populations.
When Mt Egmont was changed not so long ago back to its original Mt Taranaki, there was an initial outcry.

Now Mt Taranaki flows off the lips just as easy as Aotearoa.

So fellow Kiwis are welcome to keep their history because we want to keep ours but more importantly we want to define our future, Aotearoa.

Here is the link to the petition for you to sign and share 👇🏽
https://www.maoriparty.org.nz/nz_to_aotearoa

John Henry Tamihere is a New Zealand politician, media personality, and political commentator. He was member of Parliament from 1999 to 2005, including serving as a Cabinet minister in the Labour Party from August 2002 to November 2004.