Fight for tongue-twisting taonga

Intellectual property rights to the world's longest place name form part of the Wai 262 claim. Picture / Warren Buckland

If French winemakers can stop others branding products with their local place names, why can't Maori do the same for a hill in Porangahau, in southern Hawkes Bay?

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga horonukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu is the longest place name in the world and needs to be protected from inappropriate use, Ross Scott, a Porangahau local, will tell the Waitangi Tribunal in Hastings next week.

The tribunal will be at Waipatu Marae to hear the indigenous flora and fauna and cultural intellectual property claim - otherwise known as the Wai 262 claim - often described as the "grandfather" of Treaty claims.

In three days from Monday, Ngati Kahungunu, one of six iwi driving the claim, will present evidence, covering everything from commercial rights to waiata and natural health remedies, the allocation of water rights and the depletion of other resources, habitat loss - and how the Heretaunga Plains have been transformed by colonisation.

Mr Scott has tried to copyright the longest place name, and found he could only do so by adding a prefix, which he did 18 months ago.

He felt a copyright was not a perfect solution - it was vested in him alone - but he "had to do something".

"There needs to be some recognition of the iwi or hapu's interests in such taonga [treasures] to ensure that they are protected from inappropriate use, or used with our express authority to ensure we retain any benefit that is available," Mr Scott says in evidence he is to read to the tribunal on Tuesday.

The Wai 262 claim has been on hold since the death in 2002 of Judge Richard Kearney, former head of the Waitangi Tribunal panel hearing the claim.

It resumed this year with Maori Land Court Chief Judge Joe Williams as the chair. Chief Judge Williams ruled this year that the tribunal would not inquire into historical Treaty breaches regarding taonga which are the subject of the claim.

"The Wai 262 inquiry ought first and foremost to be about measuring current Crown policy against known Treaty standards," he said.

Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana said the claim had taken longer than any other to be heard.

"While every other claim looks at specific breaches of the treaty, Wai 262 focuses on the fundamental relationship between the Crown and Maori."


Take a deep breath

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga horonukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu - a shorter version with a mere 57 letters is also used - means: "The brow of the hill where Tamatea (the man with the big knees who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains) who travelled the land, played his flute to his loved one," according to Wises New Zealand Guide.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY