Tamihere: Maori right to choose place names

By KEVIN TAYLOR political reporter

Maori have rights to name places and those rights should be respected, says Land Information and Associate Maori Affairs Minister John Tamihere.

At a hui in Wellington yesterday on a review of the law governing the naming of places and landmarks, Mr Tamihere attacked National Party leader Don Brash for his controversial race relations speech this week.

"As we move our nationhood story ... Maori world views, Maori names obviously become more important," Mr Tamihere said.

"Others can have a name to a feature - doesn't mean to say it's right or wrong - but we have a right to the name of the feature on the basis of our whakapapa - our genealogy - and our history."

He also believed resolution of the foreshore and seabed issue would accelerate the use of Maori place names.

Land Information New Zealand is reviewing the law covering the Geographic Board, which officially names places and features. The review includes ensuring the law aligns more clearly with the Treaty of Waitangi.

Dr Brash told the Orewa Rotary Club this week that the treaty was being used as a plaything by people who wanted to divide New Zealand and radicals demanding sovereignty were living in a fantasy world.

He called for an end to race-based government funding, the Maori parliamentary seats, the Maori affairs portfolio and preferential treatment for Maori.

But Mr Tamihere told the hui the board's role had major ramifications for Maori, and it was not about special rights for Maori.

"The issue no longer is whether we fight for the recognition of treaty entitlements or anything else. The issue is how we go about implementing them.

"Some others would have us believe that they are special rights to a preferred class and race of people. I like to refer to them as quite clearly an acknowledgment of our constitutional entitlements and rights."

The country had moved a long way since the board decided in the mid-1980s to adopt the dual names Mt Taranaki and Mt Egmont for the Taranaki landmark

"Being equal does not mean we all have to be the same in regards to the acknowledgment of the name of a feature.

"And this is where Dr Brash and Co get it awfully wrong in terms of where we are moving as a people."

Mr Tamihere told the Herald later he was not advocating greater rights for Maori in the naming process, but the country had moved on from 1946 when the law governing the board was passed and there should be a stronger process for Maori to be heard.

He was not personally seeking any changes to place names.

Asked if he wanted Auckland's name changed to Tamaki Makaurau - the Maori name for the area and also his electorate - Mr Tamihere said he would not "die in a ditch" for it and agreed it would change only when the country was more mature.

"Those decisions will be made by those communities when they are ready to make them, and for the right reasons."

Dr Brash said if locals had been using a European name and wanted to continue using it they should be allowed.

Any proposal to rename Auckland would be met with huge resistance and Maori should not have a right to impose names on anybody.

"I'd like people who live in the area to have a substantial say. I certainly don't want to give any race an automatic right of veto on a name."

But he said there was a long list of Maori place names around New Zealand and "that's great".

Hauraki iwi spokesman John McEnteer, a leading figure in the foreshore and seabed debate, told the hui that tangata whenua place names should be used whether they were on land or at sea.

Geographic Board law

* John Tamihere says Maori have the right to name places on the basis of "our whakapapa, our genealogy and our history".

* The NZ Geographic Board officially names places and the Government is reviewing its governing legislation, which dates from 1946.

* The review includes ensuring the law aligns more clearly with the Treaty of Waitangi.