Clive River name change supported by board

Aki Paipper of Kohupatiki Marae by the Clive River, hopefully soon to be offically known as Te Awa o Mokotūāraro. Photo / Warren Buckland

The New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa is supporting reverting the Clive River to a more historical and appropriate name and will put the proposal out for public consultation next month.

The board says it considered the proposal last week, and supports the river between Napier and Hastings being named Te Awa o Mokotūāraro.

It will be publicly notified for consultation for one month from January 18, and submissions will be considered at the next board meeting, expected to be in April.

It emphasises the proposed name change is not yet finalised, and no official name change has been settled on, but it will take several months before the discussion is concluded and a decision made.

The move follows a campaign by Kohupātiki Marae, on the banks of the river west of the riverside town of Clive, which was established in 1855.

The campaign, developed as Operation Patiki, opposed the name then given in 1975 to part of the Ngaruroro Moko-tū-ā-raro ki Rangatira which was diverted after flooding.

The people of the marae initially asked in asked the Geographic Board for the name change in 2013, but it was rejected. With Green List MP Dr Elizabeth Kerekere helping, it asked again but the board, concerned confusion with the also existing Ngaruroro River could occur at times of emergency, suggested whānau come up with a shortened alternative – thus Te Awa o Mokotuararo.

Clive – the town and the river – is named after Major-General Lord Robert Clive (aka “Clive of India”), offending the people of the area because it has no relevance, and because of his history.

He was a military leader seen as key to the expansion of the East India Company, but is recorded by Britain’s National Army Museum as a speculator who used his political and military influence and greed to amass his wealth, and, notes one of the people of Kohupatiki “never even stepped foot in New Zealand”.

Kerekere said earlier this year there was strong local support, including the Hastings mayor and councillors, and added: “It would be devastating if the application was declined, given the level of community support.”

Aki Paipper of Kohupatiki said at the time: “Calling the awa Clive is a cultural disconnect.”