Support for Wellington to be called Te Whanganui-a-Tara following Māori Party's language policy announcement
A Māori Party proposal to change the name of Wellington to Te Whanganui-a-Tara has the support of city leaders.
Kaumātua and Te Rūnanganui o Te Āti Awa ki te Upoko o te Ika a Maui chairman Kura Moeahu said he strongly supported the move to return place names to the original ingoa Māori. It would helps everyone understand the local history, he said. "There is a narration that goes with each of these names.
Wellington City Councillor Jill Day (Ngāti Tūwharetoa), who holds the Māori Partnerships portfolio, welcomed the announcement.
Commuters spoken to in Wellington by Stuff also supported the idea. Craig Lambert thought Te Ūpoko o te Ika a Māui was a more inclusive alternative. ”It represents all people.”
“Many of our cities and towns were named after people who never came to Aotearoa, with no consideration of the names that were already in use,” Day said.
Fellow Councillor Tamatha Paul (Ngāti Awa and Waikato Tainui) said there were about 39 places called Wellington in the world.
A poll on Neighbourly with over 520 respondents was 81 per cent against a name change.
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
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