Chris McVeigh KC: What's in a name?

What's in a name? It is tempting to approach the current vogue aimed at replacing all the well established and familiar place names in New Zealand (including that name itself) with maori alternatives, as some kind of shallow exercise in preening vanity practised by a coterie of self righteous plonkers, but I don't propose doing that here.

So I'll do it here instead.

No, no but seriously and much and all as I'd gain a degree of personal satisfaction from a bit of undignified name calling, I must resist that temptation and accord those who indulge themselves in this way the respect their activities don't deserve and reluctantly resist any temptation to cater to my baser instincts.

Insights From Social Media: Why The Word Aotearoa Should Be Discarded

Alfred Johns writes > Fellow New Zealanders,

I want to say about something far greater than politics. I speak about identity, history, truth, and the name of our nation — the name by which the world has known us for generations: that is “New Zealand”.

Names matter.

Ani O'Brien: It's just a passport cover... except it's not

The battle over the words on our passports says a lot more about New Zealand than we’d like to admit.

So, they’re flipping the words on the cover of the New Zealand passport… again. New Zealand is to return to sit above Aotearoa. Cue the headlines. Cue the outrage. Cue the proverbial dick measuring. Cue the race-baiting.

Roger Childs: Aotearoa was not Used in Centuries Gone By

“Of all the fake history with which New Zealand is swamped today, nothing is more blatant than the claim that “Aotearoa” is, or was, the Maori name for our country.” Distinguished Historian Bruce Moon

Apparently it’s trendy to use Aotearoa

In the 15 March TV3 News the item on the Auckland Infrastructure Conference was introduced with the words SELLING AOTEAROA; fortunately at the venue it had “New Zealand Infrastructure Conference” plastered on the walls behind the rostrum. 

Karl du Fresne: What New Zealanders think about the name Aotearoa

The jury has returned its verdict, and it’s emphatic. New Zealanders want the country’s name left as it is.

In a Newshub-Reid Research poll, respondents were asked what they thought New Zealand should be known as.

Fifty-two percent wanted the country to be called New Zealand, pure and simple. Thirty-six percent wanted Aotearoa in the mix, as in the bob-each-way formulation Aotearoa-New Zealand.

But here’s the crunch: only 9.6 percent of those polled thought the country should be renamed Aotearoa. This is a resounding rebuff to the political, bureaucratic, academic and media elites who have tried for years to impose Aotearoa by sheer frequency of usage.

A.E. Thompson: The Newly Named Government of our Newly Named Country

 

We are seeing huge changes to our government and its services under false claims about what the Treaty of Waitangi said, even assuming it's at all sensible to engage in the mental gymnastics required to apply any such treaty to circumstances far removed from the era for which it was designed. Let’s look at some of what's happening to our administration under our noses.

 

According to its new logo, our government now calls itself 'Te Kawanatanga O Aotearoa' with 'New Zealand Government' as a deliberately lesser postscript underneath. There appears to have been no warning about this, no opportunity for the public to consider it. It wasn't mentioned at all in Labour's election campaign. "Big deal, it's just a Maori name for government" some might say, but it's a lot more than that. It's not just adding a Maori name, it's prioritizimg that name and essentially renaming our government.

Mike Butler: How to regain our nation

There is a new madness afoot. A determined race-based minority within the Maori community is seizing control of the country while most others remain ill-informed unaware and uncaring. Such are the words of John Robinson in his new book Regaining a Nation – Equality and Democracy.

Robinson, who has a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and wrote Unrestrained Slaughter: The Maori Musket Wars 1800-1840, The Kingite Rebellion, Dividing a Nation: the return to tikanga, and He Puapua – Blueprint for breaking up New Zealand, gives insight as a scientist who did research for New Zealand government entities.

Bruce Moon: Faking Our Name

Of all the fake history with which New Zealand is swamped today, nothing is more blatant than the claim that ‘Aotearoa” is, or was, the Maori name for our country.

If that were true,  the Williams, father and son, would certainly have used it in their translation of Hobson’s final draft of 4^th February 1840 into that much-scrutinized document, the “Treaty of Waitangi”.  After all, they had been in New Zealand for seventeen years, son Edward Marsh Williams since the age of four and speaking the Ngapuhi dialect as fluently as anybody.  But no! The Williams chose “Nu Tirani”, a reasonable, if not perfect, transliteration using the limited sounds of that speech.

And when their text was presented to the great assembly of chiefs and others the following day, not one word was spoken to challenge the Williams’ choice.  Not once does “Aotearoa” appear in Colenso's recording of the speeches of the day, carefully checked by Busby at the time.

Bruce Moon: Changing our Country’s Name by Stealth

To anybody who is reasonably observant, the rapid increase in appearance of the word “Aotearoa” in print and the spoken word will appear very striking, even sinister.  Thus, the former Race Relations Commissioner, Dame Susan Devoy, has used it; it has appeared on postage stamps in larger print than our country’s real name and more recently Prime Minister Arden has stated her opinion[1] that “Using 'Aotearoa' and 'New Zealand' together is ‘as it should be’”.

What is going on?  Is our country’s name being changed by stealth?  We are New Zealanders – surely we are proud of that!  By what right can anybody alter it?

As always, we can get some perspective by looking at our history which tells us that “Aotearoa” is a quite recent upstart with scant justification, if any at all, to be used as our country’s name.

Michael Laws: Aotearoa? It's New Zealand

The petition of Te Pāti Māori to junk our country’s name and substitute the word ‘Aotearoa’ has been presented to Parliament with allegedly 70,000 supporting signatories.

The aim of the petition is two-fold.

First, advance a separatist Maori agenda.

Second, deny and devalue the role of the British Crown and Pakeha settlers in developing this nation.

Oh, and you can probably add a third. Junking the first article of the Treaty of Waitangi. The one that says that the Crown is in charge. The English version reads:

Rodney Hide: Aotearoa

New Zealand has unraveled. The values and knowledge that underpin a free and prosperous society have been turned inside out, upside down and trashed.

It has happened over night without discussion or debate. A switch was flipped and we awoke in a different country. It is not one we recognise or know.

We are left disoriented and reeling. Brave souls rebel against particular policy but to no avail. There is no argument or debate. That was then; this is now.

The new New Zealand known as Aotearoa is totalitarian. There is one acceptable view on everything and anyone expressing alternative views is morally reprehensible and to be condemned and destroyed. We have learnt to keep our ideas and thoughts to ourselves. To speak your mind risks your career, business and social standing.

Hugh Perrett: Open Letter to the Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister,

Many, many of we New Zealanders are heartily sick of and extremely annoyed at your Government’s ongoing campaign to bring about a change in our country’s name from New Zealand to Aotearoa. 

This has obviously in effect involved instructing Government Departments and major media (at least) to continually push the name Aotearoa in association with or, increasingly, at the expense of our country’s name, New Zealand. 

We, as a country have spent billions of dollars over many, many years promoting the name New Zealand and giving it identity and meaning internationally. 

It is our Brand name in the same way as names like Coca Cola, Colgate, Persil, Watties, Palmolive, Milo, Vegemite and many others are brand names instantly conveying the identity, positive benefits and positive consumer associations with them. 

None of these brand owners would for a second contemplate changing the name of these branded products.

Stuff: Aotearoa a European hoax

The following article, dated 18^th Feb 2009, is posted on Stuff’s website. 

It is a reminder of what newspapers used to be like before they were lobotomised by government influence... 

Aotearoa a European hoax

10:38, Feb 18 2009

Maori arise. Tuhoe, march. You are in danger of having foisted upon you, in the guise of Maori history, a great European romantic invention.

We are talking here about the name Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud.

Karl du Fresne: A referendum? You mean, like, allowing people to have their say? We can't have that

It’s fascinating to observe the force with which the government and its protectors in the media have jumped on the National Party’s suggestion that official use of the name “Aotearoa” should be the subject of a referendum.

If this is the most pressing issue Judith Collins can come up with, they scoff, then she’s gone off the road (Ben Thomas’s phrase on Stuff). In any case, they remind us, “Aotearoa” has been around for years. It’s on our passports and banknotes. And guess who was in power when it was put there, as Newshub reminded us last night: why, the National Party! Game, set and match, then. Hell, hasn’t even Judith Collins been heard using the name once or twice?

Bruce Moon: Changing our Country’s Name by Stealth

To anybody who is reasonably observant, the rapid increase in appearance of the word “Aotearoa” in print and the spoken word will appear very striking, even sinister.  Thus, even the recently appointed Race Relations Commissioner, Dame Susan Devoy, has used it and it has appeared on postage stamps in larger print than our country’s real name.  What is going on?  Is our country’s name being changed by stealth?  We are New Zealanders – surely we are proud of that!  By what right can anybody alter it?

As always, we can get some perspective by looking at our history which tells us that “Aotearoa” is a quite recent upstart with scant justification, if any at all, to be used as our country’s name.