The Herald has developed an interactive version of new government maps showing New Zealand’s original tangata whenua place names for Māori Language Week.
The Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa New Zealand Geographic Board has created two maps - one for Te Ika-a-Māui (North Island) and Te Waipounamu (South Island). Each map displays around 900 Māori and Moriori place names, their meanings and landscape features as they were in 1840.
Wendy Shaw, the board’s secretary, said years of research and consultation with mana whenua went into creating the maps.
Researchers also relied on the previous work of the late Te Aue Davis, who travelled around New Zealand collecting hundreds of place names for the first edition of the map, published in 1995, Shaw said.
The Herald used a preliminary digital release of the place names data to annotate an online map and a small number of the place names from the original map were not included.
The latest edition of the map was released in July and includes around 1800 place names, about 600 more than the 1995 edition. The latest edition of the map includes many place names that were reinstated as part of Treaty settlements.
“Having a name that has always been used by tangata whenua through their oral traditions, karakia, waiata, whakataukī - all that recognised and depicted in hard form on a government-authority map - you can’t underestimate the power of that and the return of that sense of identity, belonging and acceptance,” Shaw said.
Shane Te Ruki (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato, Ngāti Porou) was on the New Zealand Geographic Board during the maps’ development. His principal identity is Mount Kakepuku located in Waipā Valley in Waikato.
Te Ruki said the maps were a valuable resource to all New Zealanders. Place names - and their associated meanings and narratives - were portals into the past that could help us understand who we are in the present and who we could become in the future. The maps do not yet include all tangata whenua names, but the intention is to update them again in the future.
The map also includes explanations of each of the place names. For example, as the map’s index explains, Aorere is a Hawaiki name meaning “flowing clouds” while Waikawa refers to “bitter waters”.
“Names of land and spaces are really important because they speak to us, they tell us of a time past.
“As human beings, we are all answer-seeking creatures. We look for our narrative, a place to which we belong.”
Māori brought names with them from Hawaiki and from within Polynesia, Te Ruki said. Other names were “seen, felt and developed” in Aotearoa by observing the natural geography, flora and fauna. When settlers arrived, they too brought names with them to create their own sense of place.
“Many Māori names were subsumed, passed over, even just completely and utterly replaced.
“Part of settling your place is putting your name there and reviving these traditional names is about a reclamation for Māori, but it’s also a reclamation for all of Aotearoa New Zealand and we will be the better and richer for it.”
Hard copies of the maps have been sent out to all schools across the country. Information on where you can purchase a map, or download a digital copy for free, is available online.
Julia Gabel is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on data journalism. She joined the Herald in 2020.