New Zealand’s Te Pāti Māori has handed over its petition — with 70,000 signatures — calling for the country to officially be named Aotearoa.

It is on our passports, on our money, and in our national anthem. But Aotearoa is not our official name, yet.

The petition was delivered to Parliament today. It calls to change the country’s official name to Aotearoa, and begin a process to restore te reo Māori names for all towns, cities, and places by 2026.

• READ MORE: Other te reo Māori reports

“Whether you’re for or against, the thing is everyone knows that Aotearoa is a legitimate name given to this country by Kupe — not by Governor Grey or any written book, this is well before any of those things,” Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said.

Te Reo fluency among Māori dropped from 90 percent in 1910 to 26 percent in 1950.

Today, just 20 percent of the Māori population speak it. That’s three percent of the whole country.

Waititi said the only way to restore the language was to make it visible in as many places as possible.

‘Pebble being dropped in the water’
“This is the pebble being dropped in the water, the initial pebble hitting the water. And what it’ll do, from now for many years to come, is those ripples will continue to get bigger and bigger.”

The petition now goes to a select committee, which will decide what to do next. Whether that was a bill or even a public referendum, it had already succeeded, Waititi said.

“It’s starting the dialogue, it’s building awareness. It has started a wananga across the country.”

National leader Christopher Luxon said changing the name was a constitutional issue.

“I think those are decisions for the New Zealand people, if there’s widespread support it should go to referendum and it should be a decision that they get to make. It’s not something the government makes,” he said.

But just last week Luxon posted a tribute in te reo Māori to kaumatua Joe Hawke, resulting in a tirade of anti-Māori remarks from National supporters.

Waititi brushed off any backlash the petition, and by extension he, received.

“If they’re getting their undies in a twist, that’s their undies, not my undies,” he said.

Time for a discussion
Government ministers said it was time for a discussion over changing the name, but were not actually committing to one.

“These things evolve over time, but it’s up to every New Zealander to be part of the debate,” Andrew Little said.

“I’m mindful that representatives from Ngāi Tahu have pointed out that Aotearoa tends to focus on the North Island, but that’s a debate that can rightly happen,” David Clark said.

Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall admitted she had not given it any thought.

“But I’m very comfortable having the country referred to as Aotearoa-New Zealand,” she said.

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said it was not something the Labour caucus had discussed, while Michael Wood called for open-mindedness.

“I think any question like that needs to be worked through really carefully. It’s the name of our country, the identity of our country,” he said.

Labour’s Māori caucus divided
Labour’s Māori caucus was somewhat divided

“I think we should have a good conversation about it. I’ve personally got no problems with us using Aotearoa but it’s a question for the whole country,” Kelvin Davis said.

Minister of Māori Development Willie Jackson supported the use of Aotearoa, but said he had recently been travelling around the country, speaking to Māori communities, and changing the country’s name never came up.

“We have other kaupapa more important right now,” he said.

Peeni Henare believed the country was ready.

“I’m encouraging one and all to have a very mature debate over what I think is a pretty cool kaupapa,” he said.

Artist Hohepa Thompson, also known as Hori, backed the petition.

Hori’s Pledge response
Hori’s Pledge is a response to billboards popping up around the country saying “New Zealand, not Aotearoa”, funded by lobby group Hobson’s Pledge.

Thompson had been driving across Te Ika a Maui, with his own billboard in tow, to call for change.

He believed a hyphenated ‘Aotearoa-New Zealand’ would not go far enough.

“Māori have taken the backseat for many, many times. So when it comes to Aotearoa-New Zealand, let’s have this. Aotearoa, boom.”

The most positive conversations on his trip came from people who did not even know Pākehā history, he said.

“The only renaming that happened here was from that side. So we’re not trying to create ‘change’, were just re-instating what was already here.”

He pointed out a similar subject that took place recently.

Three years ago, some said a national holiday for Matariki would never happen. Later this month, it will be officially celebrated for the first time.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

RNZ News

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has used her Waitangi Day speech to call for New Zealand’s people to come together and overcome the challenges facing the country today and into the future.

A pre-recorded speech from Ardern has been broadcast as part of today’s Waitangi Day commemorations.

Because of the pandemic, the Waitangi Trust shifted the focus for this year’s Waitangi Day commemorations from the typical in-person ceremony at the treaty grounds north of Paihia to a virtual experience via broadcasts and online.

• READ MORE: Waitangi Day live with RNZ News
• Waitangi Day live on Māori Television

Ardern said it was important to take time and reflect on Waitangi Day and think about how to improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders.

She said across Aotearoa there were stories of arrival, settlement, conflict, unity, hope and hardship and acknowledging the stories was crucial to people’s connection to each other.

“Today, we mark the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and our ancestors who signed this document, we mark their journey, and continue to make our own, one that defines our nation — a nation we can all be proud of.

“Togetherness is something we have shown throughout the last few years, I know it hasn’t been easy. There were many clouds and at times they seemed so dark that the sun could not shine through, but together we have, and we continue to overcome.”

Proud of NZ history teaching
Ardern said she was proud that this year schools would have the resources to teach New Zealand history and the country would celebrate the first Matariki public holiday.

Ardern said she would return to Waitangi in person, but for now she had to address people from Parliament in Wellington.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro travelled to Waitangi to pre-record speeches last month.

It was on the flight from Kerikeri to Auckland that they became close contacts of a positive covid-19 case, but subsequently they both tested negative for the virus.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The co-leader of New Zealand’s minority Māori Party has launched a blistering attack on white privilege and the opposition National Party which it accuses of “igniting racism” in the framing of a debate about radical political change.

In a provocative introduction to her weekly column in The New Zealand Herald today, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer asks: “Hey coloniser, so let me get this right, you want to lead a debate about indigenous rights that you helped to destroy?”

She writes in her media message to Pākehā colonisers: “You dishonour Te Tiriti [1840 Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding political partnership document] and promote continuing to do so.

• READ MORE: He Puapua – working group report on a UN Declaration on the Indigenous Rights for NZ
• National Party leader Judith Collins’ claims about ‘separatism by stealth’

“You stole our land and our language. You denounce our history, preferring to educate on anything but us. And you have done nothing to reverse this, instead preferring to ignore the problems.

“We are in an inherently white system that you designed, yet you feel oppressed that Māori want to stop the pain of inequities. Your systemic racism continues to perpetuate intergenerational trauma, which you refuse to accept.”

While acknowledging that National Party leader Judith Collins claimed that New Zealanders “find racism abhorrent”, she added that “in my opinion she is igniting racism through a carefully deployed campaign — apparently with the help of former leader Don Brash”.

Ngarewa-Packer says New Zealanders are entitled to a conversation about radical change, but they are not “counteracting with alternative solutions”, preferring to focus on what she saw as the “misery of struggling Māori whānau”.

‘White hypocrisy’
Criticising what she describes as “white hypocrisy”, Ngarewa-Packer called instead for a “debate about the coloniser’s entitlements”.

“And rather than start on a timeline plucked out to help lift right-wing leaders’ dying polls, let’s start at the beginning: 181 years ago, and discuss the rights of tangata whenua and the radical change needed in Aotearoa to see those rights fulfilled,” she said.

“And yes, I hear you. Why should you pay for your ancestors’ mistakes? But why should we, either?

“No one can give our language, lives, and land (actually this is possible) back. There is no true price for our tāonga. But we must at least stop the lying and stop making a mockery of tangata whenua with this pathetic dog-whistling.”

Ngarewa-Packer says a debate was needed on how New Zealand economy had been built off the “displacement of tangata whenua”.

“How tangata whenua are the largest benefactors to this nation, having accepted settlements worth 1 per cent loss of whenua stolen, in a process determined by the Crown!”

Disparity in the economy
Among examples Ngarewa-Packer gave of the disparity between the Pākehā and Māori share of the economy, were the NZ$1.9m funding for Te Matatini, the “largest kapa haka event on the planet, versus $16.9m for the NZ Symphony Orchestra”.

She also cited the $250m spent on the America’s Cup this year.

Ngarewa-Packer has also called for less hypocrisy about “crackdowns needed to stop crime”

“Let’s turn our gaze to white-collar crime, which has seen an estimated $2 billion to $4 billion loss to Aotearoa, through tax avoidance and evasion.”

She added that Māori sought to “drive our own tino rangatiratanga [self-determination]”.

OBITUARY: By Matthew Theunissen of RNZ News

Acclaimed actor and activist Anzac Wallace is being remembered by people in the film and political worlds for his rare talent and powerful personality.

The actor has died at the age of 76. His tangi will be at Ngā Whare Waatea Marae in Māngere.

Wallace, usually called “Zac”, was best known for his role in the 1983 film Utu (Revenge), which brought him critical acclaim and helped put New Zealand – and Māori – on the map.

READ MORE: Māori Television tribute to Anzac Wallace

The thrilling tale of conflict between Māori and British colonists in 1870s New Zealand is led by Wallace’s character Te Wheke, who sets out to take vengeance on the British forces who have killed his family and destroyed his village.

Wallace had done little acting before taking on the role. He was working as a trade union organiser during the 1978 Māngere Bridge construction project dispute when he met Utu director Geoff Murphy.

That’s when Labour MP Willie Jackson also got to know him.

“Zac Wallace was a leader. There’s no doubt about it,” Jackson said.

‘Huge personality’
“In every area that he moved into, you know, he was born a leader and he just had this big, huge personality and he was a natural orator and he was a fighter for justice.”

Wallace ran into trouble when he was a young man and spent more than a decade in borstal and prison – the most serious a six-year sentence for armed robbery – but turned his life around after his release.

“He went from being in the D in Paremoremo [prison] to become a union leader and a really acclaimed actor and community leader,” Jackson said.

“So it’s such a successful life. He had so many skills and of course he had his flaws, too … but always his leadership stood out and he had a great heart for the people.”

When Utu was released, Jackson said it was an incredible source of pride for Māori, as well as for the rest of the country.

“We had so few Māori who had made it, in terms of international acclaim. You know, the Temuera Morrisons, the Cliff Curtises, the Taika Waititis, Kimberley, they came along quite a bit later. And so Zac was one of the first – if not the first – to really get some international acclaim.”

Actor-turned-lawyer Kelly Johnson, best known for playing car thief Gerry Austin in Goodbye Pork Pye, got to know Wallace on the set of Utu.

“We were in the bush, it was cold and with snow sometimes. So you end up sitting around, trying to keep warm and talking. And that’s how I got to know him.

‘Talk quite openly’
“It was a really fascinating, interesting time because we were discussing things that we don’t normally talk about. And we could confront them and talk about quite openly, about what happened in the past.

“And at the same time, there was all this stuff going on with the Red Squad and you know, the Springbok Tour. There was a sort of a weird parallel going on in real life.”

Anzac Wallace spoke to RNZ after Geoff Murphy’s death in December last year.

“At that time I didn’t trust maybe people and this bearded man rocked up on my doorstep with a cigarette – a durrie – hanging out of his mouth and asking me if I wanted to play in a movie.

“I always took those sorts of invitations like a joke. Who wants to know a thief? Who wants to know a burglar? Who wants to know an ex-prisoner?

“Geoff did. He was genuine.”

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Author and researcher David Hall has criticised anti-immigration rhetoric in New Zealand’s housing crisis, saying a more serious problem is “Pākehā leaders … failing to take action”.

Speaking at a panel discussion at Auckland University of Technology last night, Dr Hall, editor of the book Fair Borders: Migration Policy in the 21st Century, said harm and hurt from such rhetoric created side effects impacting on migrants.

Negativity directed towards home buyers with Chinese sounding surnames diverted attention from “long lines of people with British sounding surnames” that held and continued to hold powerful and influential positions over the housing issue.

READ MORE: Borders, divisions and the space between

Although there is an ethnic dimension to housing crises, he said that the most significant issue was that “Pākehā leaders supported by electorates with Pākehā majorities [were] failing to take action.”

Dr Hall, senior researcher of AUT’s Policy Observatory, was joined by three of the book’s contributors, Andrew Chen, Dr Arama Rata and Dr Evelyn Masters, to discuss how New Zealand’s borders impacted on its citizens, recent immigrants, and on people barred from the country.

Dr Hall said that over emphasis and over simplification of the role of immigration was not just a way of avoiding taking action, it was a way of avoiding responsibility for taking action and that helped nobody – “not even Pākehā and I say that as a Pākehā myself”.

He pointed out that one continuous theme was the failure of successful decision makers to make the tough decision that might have made a difference, such as the mayors of Auckland going back to the 1990s or the housing ministers.

“There is bit of pattern here,” he said.

‘Tricky’ issues
Dr Hall said that house prices had been rising since 1990s and only eight years ago there were more people leaving the country than were arriving, yet the house prices rose during the negative migration period.

The issue was “very tricky” with some of the genuine social strains such as housing affordability and policy and its relationship to migration.

The debate treated “immigration as an economic medicine that might taste a little bad and people just need to put up with which also doesn’t do anything to address peoples’ genuine worries”.

This was not his story to tell as no one ever challenged him based on the colour of his skin.
“As a Pākehā this isn’t really my story to tell because no one ever challenges me on whether I belong here, no one ever suggests to me that I shouldn’t be speaking English in public and no one tells me to leave by virtue of my appearance but this happens all the time to people,” he said.

Dr Arama Rata, a research officer at the University of Waikato, said that in New Zealand there was a border in place which was established by the invaders.

Māori border ignored
But the “Māori border has been ignored, a new imposition of state authority is being imposed, borders have been closed around the nation state to allow certain desirable white migrants in and to exclude others, and now we have a very secure racist structure in place”.

She said borders needed to be in place but, they “should be controlled more by our values rather than just purely economic incentives and the way I think we need to stop framing immigration as a problem”.

Dr Evelyn Masters, with Pākehā lineage and Cook Islands heritage that she is really proud of, said she struggled in explaining her New Zealand identity because people judged her based on her appearance.

Dr Masters, research manager of NZ Institute for Pacific Research, said people struggled to understand that she had multiple lineage in her blood line and wanted to be known as a New Zealander.

She did not have to be just one race because she looked brown, she said.

“I just want to say that I am a New Zealander, because my experience is I am multiple – I have brown people and white people in my family, why do I have to be just one as you see me.”

The panel was part of the BWB Winter Series, supported by Creative New Zealand.

• Migrant nurses in NZ face racism daily

One of New Zealand’s best-selling and most-respected historians and social commentators, Professor Paul Moon, has been acknowledged for his contributions as a researcher, academic and teacher.

The AUT Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate excellence in the university’s community.

Professor Moon was awarded the top accolade – the AUT University Medal – this week for sustained and exceptional academic achievement, especially in Māori, Treaty of Waitangi-related issues and early New Zealand history.

The award at Auckland University of Technology comes as Te Ara Poutama’s Professor Moon prepares to launch a new online course, focusing on the Holocaust.

The paper is the first of its kind in New Zealand and will be delivered entirely online, enabling people to study from all over the world. It is anticipated that the course will be available next year.

Surveying the Holocaust, from its historic origins in European anti-Semitism, through to its implementation during the period of the Third Reich, the course will centre on the preconditions of the Holocaust in Europe, its subsequent implementation and scale, and recent historiographical issues relating to its enduring significance.

Students will have the opportunity to investigate in detail a specific case study relating to the Holocaust, and to examine the relevance of the Shoah in the contemporary world.

Interactive learning
There will be lecturer support, tutorials for students to participate in, interactive learning, regular feedback on students’ work, and a comprehensive range of resources. The technical aspects of the paper will be supported by AUT’s Centre for Learning and Teaching.

“Now, more than ever, it’s important to remember the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and to understand the mentality that led to it,” Professor Moon says.

Professor Moon also received the Teaching Innovation award. His innovative approach to increasing student engagement has resulted in a number of fully online papers focusing on New Zealand history.

These four papers have formed the basis of AUT’s minor in history.

In his 24 years at AUT, Professor Moon has built an international reputation in the field of New Zealand history.

His innovative approach to learning has led to the development of online history papers and delivery of history based treaty seminars, resulting in a new undergraduate history minor at AUT in 2016.

Professor Moon has published 26 books, including Encounters: The Creation of New Zealand, which was shortlisted for the international Ernest Scott Prize in History.

Biographies, Treaty claims
Other titles include This Horrid Practice: The Myth and Reality of Traditional Maori Cannibalism, A History of New Zealand in the Twentieth Century, a trilogy of volumes on the Tūhoe tohunga (expert) Hohepa Kereopa, as well as biographies of Governors Hobson, FitzRoy, and the Ngapuhi chief Hone Heke,

His works have been published by some of the biggest international publishers including Penguin, Random House and HarperCollins.

He has worked on several Treaty of Waitangi claims and with numerous government agencies on Treaty-related issues. He is one of only a few historians whose work has been cited favourably in Parliament by MPs.

“The award is recognition of the growing role of history as a discipline at AUT, and of the contribution of all the people involved in teaching the subject,” Professor Moon says.

• Professor Paul Moon’s page