This year on June the 24th, Aotearoa New Zealand marked Matariki as an annual public holiday.
The annual rising of Matariki (the cluster of stars known elsewhere as Subaru or Pleiades), or Puanga (Rigel) in the east, indicates that the winter solstice has passed, marking the passing of a year and signalling the start of a new one.
The significance of the holiday is that it is based on important events in Māori society and reflects a deep connection and relationship with this place. The generations of observations that contribute to this knowledge can only have been made here.
The name New Zealand was allocated by Dutch cartographers back in the Netherlands.
That act of naming was part of a suite of actions undertaken by most European colonising nations using conventions and tools, including the Doctrine of Discovery.
So now in 2022, as a nation we find ourselves with a name that refers to a province in a faraway land, a place with which we have never had particularly strong links.
Can we expect that a potential new name for our nation should at least reflect who we are? Certainly, one assigned arbitrarily by cartographers over 350 years ago to rectify an error, linking us to a province with which we have few cultural or social ties, hardly seems reflective of who we are.
If we were deciding on a name together today, I suspect names referring to distant lands would be unlikely to be considered.
Dr Daniel Hikuroa. Photo / Supplied
Accordingly, I posit that our current name has little relevance to who and where we are as a nation in 2022, and so the rationale for a name change is strong.
Interestingly, as best we know, for Māori at that time and through to the present there was not one agreed name for the group of islands mapped as New Zealand.
The closest would be Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu - whereby Aotearoa refers to the North Island, and Te Waipounamu to the South Island.
What is clear though is that in modern usage, for many Aotearoa is interchangeable with New Zealand, or used alongside (Aotearoa New Zealand).
While I support the principle to choose a name that reflects who we are, the process of selecting one needs to be carefully considered.
I am reminded of Kai Tahu rangatira Ed Ellison's recent kōrero on how we need to ensure "an inclusive name was selected".
He said: "I'm really proud to see [Aotearoa] on our passports and other licences, but it's another quantum leap to adopt a name that's grown on us through osmosis, as opposed to a really significant decision to change the name of the country."
I sense that acknowledging Matariki was more than just creating another holiday, I think it reflected a maturing nation.
Selecting a new name for this place would be a great next step in that journey.
Dr Daniel Hikuroa is a senior lecturer of Māori Studies at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, and UNESCO Culture Commissioner for New Zealand.
