Aotearoa, New Zealand, Niu Tīrani, Staten Landt, and a double-barrelled option of the first two, are all names that have been used to label the small country at the bottom of the world.
So what should the country be called officially?
Te Pāti Māori on Thursday morning is presenting its petition to Parliament calling for the country’s name to be officially changed to Aotearoa. It’s also calling for the Government to officially restore the Te Reo Māori names for all towns, cities and place names.
Lobby group, Hobson's Pledge, has a petition of its own campaigning against the use of Aotearoa, and is calling for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to publicly affirm that the country’s official name is New Zealand.
Tom Roa, historian and associate professor at University of Waikato professor, told Breakfast on Thursday that including Aotearoa in the country’s official name was a better representation of its identity.
He also shared his knowledge on the history of some of the names given to the country.
Roa explained that Aotearoa, along with the name Niu Tireni were often used by Māori.
“My elders called New Zealand Niu Tīrani when they were referring to the country as a whole and sometimes it would be interchangeable with Aotearoa,” he said.
Staten Landt is said to be the country’s first European recorded name in the 1600s, having come from Dutch explorer Abel Tasman.
Another man, Joan Blaeu, official Dutch cartographer to the Dutch East India Company, has been credited for bestowing the name Nieuw Zeeland, which stuck.
Aotearoa came much later, Roa said, and was popularised by George Grey’s book, Polynesian Mythology.
“Before Tasman came here, we weren’t New Zealand. And the interesting part of the Aotearoa story is that George Grey in the Polynesian Mythology, it would appear that Aotearoa springs from his interpretation and others around his time about the name of this country."
Aotearoa-New Zealand, a double-barrel name, is also often used and is one that Roa himself likes.
“If we identify as New Zealand then that places us in an English euro-centric identity. If we want to express a clearer identity about our bilingual bicultural identity, Aotearoa New Zealand appears to be a great way to go.”
It comes after Ōtaki artist Hohepa Thompson went on a tour of the North Island last month to address racism and share his knowledge on the cultural significance behind Aotearoa, and why it should be the country’s official name.
It’s part of a wider campaign of his, Hori’s Pledge, which aims to give people more insight into te ao Māori and combat the work of lobby group Hobson’s Pledge.
The petition was presented at Parliament by Te Pāti Māori at 11am on Thursday.
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