Never call it New Zealand again. A petition launched by Te Pāti Māori (literally “the Māori party”) is calling for the Pacific country to be renamed after a Māori name, thereby erasing part of its colonial past. The text calls on the House of Representatives to henceforth call New Zealand “Aotearoa” (pronounced au-te-ah-ro-uh). And the political party doesn’t stop there, as it also calls for a review of all names of “towns, towns and monuments” to return them to their Maori names by 2026.
The text has already collected 70,000 signatures. According to Quartz online media, this number is enough for the parliament to discuss the proposal. It can then be voted on or put to a referendum. “This should allow us not only to recover our language, but also to erase some of the trauma of colonization.” MP Debbie Ngareva-Packer, co-leader of the Te Pati Maori Party, said in an interview with NPR USA.
There is already a name on the banknotes
Discovered in 1642 by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman (who gave his name to Tasmania), New Zealand was first called “Staten Landt” and then “Nova Zeelandia”, referring to Zeeland, the southern province of the western Netherlands. “Nieuw Zeeland” later became “New Zealand” when the country became part of the British Empire in 1840.
According to the leader of the Maori Party, the word Aotearoa refers to the clouds that would guide the first Polynesian sailors to these distant lands. This term is used more and more in the country. it appears on some official documents, passports and even banknotes. As the Wall Street Journal explains, a more official statement issued jointly by New Zealand and the United States in May even named Jacinda Ardern as prime minister of “Aotearoa-New Zealand.”
Since 2018, several petitions and counter-petitions have successively called for New Zealand’s name to be changed or, conversely, to remain the same. Overall, the country has worked for several years to reconnect with its origins, encouraging the use of Maori, one of its three official languages, along with English and sign language.
This fight does not stop with language. In 2015, the New Zealand government launched a competition to redesign the country’s flag, which featured the British Union Jack symbol. However, the new version of the flag was ultimately rejected in a popular referendum after months of intense debate.
A question of generations.
Maori Party co-leader Debbie Ngareva-Packer sees the delay as a generational conflict. “The Maori population is young. 70% of them are under 40 years old, 25% under 20 years old. On the other hand, the previous generation, brought up in a system from which Māori were absent, has a much more “monocultural” vision.. For him, New Zealand. “One of the last nations to be colonized”go “Living episodes that other countries have already experienced to reclaim their identity.”
Take the example of Swaziland, which officially changed its name in 2018 to Eswatini (Land of the Swazis in the Swati language). Australia, in turn, changed its national anthem because it did not adequately represent Aboriginal culture.
Source: Le Figaro
