Do I have a problem with changing the official name to Aotearoa, New Zealand? No. Go ahead.<\/p>\n
It ticks all the boxes. It's inclusive, and it recognises the Treaty partnership that kicked this country off.<\/p>\n
But it would be a giant fraud to suggest that Aotearoa as a stand-alone name was somehow the Mori-created name for all of New Zealand.<\/p>\n
It never was. And only in modern times have Mori adopted it as the Mori name for the country.<\/p>\n
My approach will be poo-pooed as politically incorrect by the treaty rent-a-crowd gate-crashers.<\/p>\n
But I'm at this party too, along with every other New Zealander.<\/p>\n
So here are some facts to dampen their breathless activist rants.<\/p>\n
The word Aotearoa was selected and popularised as the Mori name for New Zealand by - wait for this - Pakeha writers William Pember Reeves and Stephenson Percy Smith.<\/p>\n
Next, it was used in the Education Department's school journal.<\/p>\n
It flourished from there.<\/p>\n
Aotearoa was never used by early Mori to describe New Zealand...<\/p>\n
Mori were a collection of tribes and did not have a need for or concept of 'nation'.<\/p>\n
It wasn't a country with a name, it was a collection of tribes across islands.<\/p>\n
If anything, later on, there are claims that Aotearoa was used by Mori as a name for the North Island, which is still currently disputed.<\/p>\n
Mori traditionally adopted the name Niu Tireni, a transliteration of New Zealand, which came from the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand in 1831.<\/p>\n
I'm sorry to spoil the party for the activists who somehow think Aotearoa is the answer to a problem that quite frankly doesn't even exist.<\/p>\n
Call us New Zealand, yes. Call us Aotearoa, New Zealand, yes. Call us just Aotearoa? No.<\/p>\n
It's total bollocks to suggest this meant anything to pre-European Mori.<\/p>\n
We have perpetuated this myth that Aotearoa goes way back. It doesn't. It's largely European in its roots. How could the activists accept that?<\/p>\n
Duncan Garner is the host of The AM Show.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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\nDuncan Garner: Should we change the name of New Zealand to Aotearoa? No - and here's why - Newshub<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"