Wanganui and Whanganui: a Clash of Identities

Wanganui and Whanganui: a clash of identities

Philip W. MATTHEWS

1. Introduction New Zealand is a small country with a 2006 population of 4,143, 282 (Statistics New Zealand, n.d.: a), of whom 14.6% self identified as Maori (the indigenous people of New Zealand and numbering about 645,000), 67.6% self identified as Pakeha/European (hereafter Pakeha, and coming mainly from the United Kingdom and some from other European countries), 10.4% self identified as “New Zealander”, a new census category (Statistics New Zealand n.d.: b), which is merged here with Pakeha (and giving a combined total of about 3,3000,000), with the remainder identifying themselves in other ways. The number of persons who self identify as being of mixed race percentages is not available but will overlap to a considerable extent the Maori, Pakeha and all other self identities and subsume many hundreds of thousand New Zealanders. Maori is an official language and English, while not an official language, is the dominant language and is used regularly by almost all the inhabitants of New Zealand. Responsibility for changes in the names of geographical and other features rests with the New Zealand Geographic Board (NZGB). Over the last eighty five years they have made hundreds of name changes, usually in the form of correcting a spelling mistake in both Maori and non Maori names or replacing one name with another. Changing place names is an ongoing process. Of specific interest is the case of Wanganui, a city and district with about 43,000 people (the word district is used to refer to the entire area—the city and the surrounding area for which the Wan- ganui District Council is the local government authority). Here, on the 11th of February 2009 Te Runanga O Tupoho (2009) (hereafter the Runanga), an organization or council representing the southern tribes and subtribes in the Whanganui River valley and with Ken Mair as a spokesperson, lodged a submission with the NZGB requesting that the name Wanganui be changed to Whanganui (See Sections 4.3

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for a discussion of Maori orthography, 4.4 for the pronunciation of the two words and 4.5 for the meanings of Wanganui and Whan- ganui). On 30th March 2009 the NZGB initiated a public consultation on the proposal. On 10 August 2009 the Mayor of the Wanganui District Council, Michael Laws, lodged a submission opposing that by the Runanga (Wanganui District Council 2009). In total over 900 submissions were made to the NZGB. In September 2009 the NZGB made its decision public and on December 2009 the Minister for Land Information made public his decision. This issue prompted national and international comments on radio and television, in speeches and in the newspapers. In addition, there were many online forums. This study is based on one online forum “Should it be ‘Wanga- nui’ or ‘Whanganui’?” set up in 2008 by a newspaper, the New Zea- land Herald (2008-2009), in response to the opening of a major government inquiry about Maori land ownership and other matters in the Wanganui district. It received many more comments once the Runanga and Wanganui District Council submissions were made. Over the seventeen months from May 13 2008 to October 27 2009 it received 1036 comments. The commentators identified themselves by a name, e.g. Ray, Kiwimum, taihakoa, THC, Fedup and Gackty Pants, and a location in New Zealand, e.g. Gonville (a suburb of Wanganui), Te Kaha, Auckland Central, Wanganui and Whanganui, or elsewhere, e.g. Australia, Japan, Kazakhstan and Albania. A handful of commentators identified themselves as either Maori, Pakeha or of mixed ancestry. In all cases there is no means of verifying their names, locations, nationalities, gender or “race”. It is also not known how many used more than one name in their contributions. In this study every third comment was selected. Thus the sequence is 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 and so on. However, twelve of the selected comments were found for various reasons to be irrelevant. They were excluded and the next one was included but the original sequence is continued. Thus, 1, 4, 8, 10, 13, 16 and so on. This resulted in 345 comments, made by 276 commentators (see Table 1). The numbers in brackets throughout the paper, e.g. (0675), are those of the comments in the New Zealand Herald’s forum. The original spelling, punctuation and capitalization in the comments and in the references are kept and hence Maori and Pakeha are spelt in a variety of now incorrect ways.

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TOTALS No. of commentators 1 141626237276 No. of comments per 86543 2 1 – commentator Total comments 8 6 20 4 18 52 237 345 Table 1: The number of commentators and comments per commentator

The study proceeds as follows: Section 2 contains a summary of each submission; Section 3 deals with the historic and current use of the two names, Wanganui and Whanganui; in Section 4 ten themes raised by the commentators are identified and for each theme (a) a selection of their views is given which either support or oppose the two submissions and (b) a commentary, drawn from other sources, is given about their views; and in Section 5 the Minister of Land Information’s decision and its aftermath are commented on. Section 6 is the Conclusion.

2. The two submissions The first submission is that of the Runanga (2009), presented by Che Philip Wilson (though Ken Mair is a spokesman for the Runanga). This submission in favour of changing the name to Whanganui is summarized as follows: R1 the name is a Maori word; R2 the name is long standing; R3 the Whanganui tribe accepts two traditional origins of the meaning of the name; R4 a modern meaning has incorrectly developed; R5 the correct spelling is Whanganui; R6 the digraph [i.e. wh] represents a single sound; R7 the decision of the Wanganui District Council at a meeting on 24 February 2009 in favour of Wanganui belittled the Whanga- nui tribe’s culture; R8 it is important to the tribe and to the future members of the tribe that the name be spelt and pronounced correctly; R9 the identity of the Whanganui tribe is intrinsically linked to this correctness; and R10 Maori is an official language of New Zealand and therefore Maori words should be spelled correctly.

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The second submission was made by the Mayor, Michael Laws, “on behalf of not just the Wanganui District Council but on behalf of the people of Wanganui” (Wanganui District Council 2009). This submission, in favour of retaining the name “Wanganui” is summarized as follows: L1 two referendums have shown that Wanganui residents are ada- mantly opposed to any spelling alteration; L2 Wanganui is not a Maori name; it belongs to the entire Wanga- nui community and common usage has made it so over the past 170 years; L3 the name Wanganui has evolved within the community and the NZGB seeks to impose an alien solution on the community; L4 the name Wanganui has acquired a mana, heritage and identity of its own throughout New Zealand and the international community; L5 Wanganui is one of many NZ place names that have evolved from their original spelling and meaning; L6 Wanganui has been accepted as the correct spelling by both Maori and Pakeha until comparatively recently and we know now that that was without the ‘h’; L7 there was no written Maori language when those given the responsibility were transcribing the name Wanganui; L8 Wanganui is the only Maori dialect that does not sound its ‘h’; this is the reason for the original spelling of Wanganui; L9 the “w” sound was probably recognised as a dialect difference and this sound more adequately represents the cultural place of local Maori within the wider district; L10 the Maori of Wanganui should have their unique dialect recognised in the spelling and the Runanga’s submission seems to fly in the face of recognising that uniqueness in that the “wh” will be pronounced a “f” rather than the local dialectal “w”; and L11 already Whanganui is being pronounced as Fonganui [i.e. /fo∞anui/] by those outside the district and this can cause cultural offence.

3. The use of the two names, Wanganui and Whanganui The river was initially called Knowsley by the British but from at least 1837 its name was Wanganui (Beaglehole 2009: 2). The government

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named the village established on it by the immigrants Petre (i.e. /pi:t¢/) but after a petition by thirty five residents of the village in 1844 the government agreed in 1854 to rename it Wanganui. Over time many organizations included the word Wanganui in their name. Some of the many current examples are Coastguard Wanganui, Mensa Wanganui, Riding for the Disabled Wanganui, Wanganui Chronicle and Wanganui Women’s Club (Wanganui Directory 2010 and Wan- ganui Yellow Pages 2010). The ‘Whanganui’ spelling has also been used from early on. Thus, on an 1841 chart of “Cook’s Strait” are the words “Whanganui Knowsley R Bar”, and an 1843 map, labelled “The islands of New Zealand” has the names “Whanganui or Knowsely R.” (Beaglehole 2009: 6). A 1873 map shows “R. Whanganui” and the town of “Whan- ganui” (Bowden 1873, map between pp. 8 and 9) while Bowden and Hector’s book refers to the “County of Whanganui” and “the borough of Whanganui” (1879: 91) and “R. Whanganui” and “Whanganui” (for the town) (1879: map between pp. 92 and 93). Some of the fewer current examples are: Bulk Barn Whanganui, Community Legal Advice Whanganui, Sarjeant Gallery/Te Whare O Rehua/Whanganui, Whanganui District Health Board, Women’s Refuge Whanganui and YWCA Whanganui Inc (Wanganui Directory 2010 and Wanganui Yel- low Pages 2010). In 1986 the Whanganui National Park was established. In 1991 the Whanganui River Maori Trust Board applied to the NZGB to change the name of river to Whanganui River. The Wanganui District Council conducted a survey of 200 people and found the following:

To change from Wanganui If the “h” was added to the River to Whanganui River river name should it also be added to the city name? In favour 17.8% 24.8% Against 61.9% 65.8% Other 20.3% 9.4% Source: New Zealand Geographic Board 1991 Table 2: 1991 survey results about Wanganui and Whanganui

On 23 April 1991 the Minister approved the NZGB’s recommendation and the river changed from Wanganui to Whanganui.

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There have been at least two attempts to change the name of the town from Wanganui to Whanganui: at a Borough Council meeting on 26 September 1902 and in 1938. Neither proposal was successful (Beaglehole 2009: 11 and 13). An interesting example where both names have been used for many years is that of one of the local schools. The school opened in 1854 and became the Wanganui Collegiate School, but the school’s governing body called itself the Whanganui College Board of Trustees (Beaglehole 2009: 8 and Wanganui Collegiate School 2010). While both names have been used extensively it should be noted: a) Maori have generally used Whanganui in preference to Wanganui; b) the majority of written sources over the years in the English language, in a ratio of perhaps 10: 1, have used Wanganui in preference to Whanganui; and c) Whanganui has generally been used in English written sources in reference to “Maori matters” (Beaglehole 2009: 12).

Laws (2009a) asserted that “that the more historical study he had done of the issue ‘the less valid is the argument to add an ‘h’. Neither Euro- pean nor Maori spelt Wanganui with an ‘h’ in the 19th century’”. However, it is clear that both names have been in use for many years from the mid nineteenth century and onwards. The commentators did refer to Petre and Wanganui as the village names and Wanganui and Whanganui as the river names but did not refer to their current use for entities other than in the district and the river.

4. Themes in the comments An iterative content analysis was made of the 345 comments and several themes raised by the commentators were identified. These are: 4.1. The early history of New Zealand and the district; 4.2. The Treaty of Waitangi 1840; 4.3. The origins of Maori orthography; 4.4. The pronunciation of the district’s name; 4.5. The meanings of Wanganui and Whanganui; 4.6. Ken Mair, spokesperson for Te Runanga O Tupoho; 4.7. Michael Laws, Mayor of Wanganui; 4.8. Referendums and democracy;

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4.9. The New Zealand Geographic Board; and 4.10. Identities in New Zealand. As indicated in Section 1 each theme will now be discussed.

4.1. The early history of New Zealand and the district Maori are the indigenous population of New Zealand. However, their primacy is denied by some commentators: • “Maori weren’t first on this land. They were just one in a line of people who came to NZ before them” (0013); and • “the Morioris were here first and the Maoris committed genocide on them so really speaking who has what rights?” (0067). In contrast the comments of only one commentator were accurate, i.e. that Moriori are also indigenous to New Zealand but lived in the Chatham Islands: • “there is a consensus that Moriori were basically the same as Maori… on the East Coast and in the South Island. Their language also shares many features of South Island/East Coast forms of Maori” (0152). A handful of commentators asked whether Maori had ever lived in the area: • “I am interested to know whether or not the Local Maori had a per- manent settlement in the exact area where Wanganui first became a town (then City)? If so what was this settlement known as?” (0604). It is clear that Maori have a history of more than six hundred years in the district before the arrival of the immigrants and did not exterminate the Moriori who had never lived there (King 1989). Smart and Bates report that, in the area of the lower river, there were several named pa (fortified villages) on the west bank and several on the south bank, while there were named fishing and agricultural villages and named canoe landing points everywhere (1972: 28-29). The area was occupied and used. None of the settlements were named Wanganui or Whanganui after the name of the river. The first Europeans arrived in the area in 1831 and in 1839 the Reverend Henry Williams arrived. He established a missionary station on the eastern bank of the lower river at Putiki Pa. William Wakefield

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also visited the area in 1839 and after negotiations the purchase of land for immigrants was approved in 1840. In 1841 the first immigrants arrived from England and took up allotments on the western bank of the lower river in Petre (Wanganui from 1854). The immigrant Pakeha population of the area was given by Taylor about 200 in 1843 and 961 in 1854 while the Maori population was about 3,000 in the lower river area of the immigrant village and about 2,000 up the river (1855: 263). In addition, at times there were several hundred British soldiers in the district. In summary, Maori did not exterminate the Moriori. Both Maori and Pakeha in and around the town contributed to its growth for, as Taylor points out, Maori up the river “send down all their produces by it [the river] to the coast, and already is their trade of such value as to have chiefly contributed to the prosperity of the town” (Taylor 1855: 216). Maori traded in fruit, vegetables, pigs and fish with the immigrants, built houses for the immigrants and fought on their side in various battles against Maori from elsewhere.

4.2. The Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi, 1840 Several commentators mentioned this treaty. On the one hand were those who felt that the Treaty was not relevant to this issue: • The “Treaty of Waitangi should be about serious issues—not a spelling mistake” (0928). In contrast others felt that it was a treaty issue, not just for Maori but for all New Zealanders: • “Acknowledge our mistakes, honor the treaty…and let the Whan- ganui Maori have there mana” (0439); and • “this is a Tiriti, not a Democracy, issue. The just rights and interests of Maori are forever protected under Te Tiriti. As taonga [a valued property], the non-bastardisation of Te Reo Maori [i.e. the Maori language] is particularly protected under Article 2 of Te Tiriti” (0976). What is the Treaty and how do these views fit in with the Treaty? In the late 1830s the British government decided, for various reasons, to take possession of New Zealand as a colony and in February 1840 and the next few months some 500 Maori chiefs signed a Maori version of the Treaty of Waitangi.

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The Treaty of Waitangi, contained three articles which, according to an English translation of the Maori version (Kawharu 1989: 321), were briefly: (1) the British put in place a government of the country for ever; (2) Maori chiefs and tribes retain rights over their “Lands and Estates Fisheries and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess so long as it is their wish and desire to retain the same in their possession”; and (3) the British government imparts to Maori “all the Rights and Privi- leges of British Subjects”. For over a century the Treaty was generally ignored, but with the rise of Brown Power in the cities in the 1970s the pressure increased on the New Zealand governments to “honour the treaty”. The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 set up the Waitangi Tribunal to investigate claims by Maori about any actions by the Crown that were prejudicial to them from the date of the passing of the act (10 October 1975). In 1985 the Treaty of Waitangi Amendment Act empowered the Tribunal to investigate claims back to 1840. This led to many claims including several successful ones which has resulted in many dual place names in either (a) standard Maori and English or (b) a Maori dialect and English. Further, in 1987 the New Zealand government accepted that the Maori language was indeed one of the properties referred to in Article (2) of the Treaty. Consequently, under the Maori Language Act, Maori became an official language of New Zealand. Hence commentators who see the issue as a Treaty one are correct while those who think that it doesn’t apply or that it does not apply to small matters are incorrect.

4.3. The origins and development of Maori orthography The origin of the orthography for the Maori language elicited a variety of views from the commentators. Several were of the view that there was no written Maori language (0208), while a handful of commentators believed that the original Maori written language has been for- gotten (0019). Where did the orthography come from? Laws (2009b) wrote it “was gifted them by the English missionaries and settlers”. Some commentators supported this view:

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• it was “devised by a European settler. He spent many years listening to Maori and spelt it out as they pronouced the words” (0775); and • it resulted from the “phonetic translations of the early European settlers” (0895). The notion of a gift was contested. • “the letter ‘h’ along with all the other letters of the alphabet were introduced to Maori by the evil colonial oppressors in an attempt to steal the Maori language” (0142); and • Maori had to surrender “their language to the constraints of an alien alphabet” (0148). Only one commentator pointed out the obvious: • “All that has been provided are letters and native speakers of Maori … have been well adept to take those letters and use them consistently to spell out their own languages” (0157). However, some commentators called for the rejection of the “western alphabet” and the development of a new script (0142). If this happened then everyone would benefit as persons who didn’t speak Maori: • “wouldnt have to listen to all their dribble as they wouldn’t be making any sense. Actually it’s pretty much how it is now” (0145). However, it seems reasonable to conclude that the orthography was not a gift as “The missionaries recognized from the beginning the necessity for working in the vernacular. The decision to instruct in Maori was based on the realization that they would have to impose their ideas upon Maori through the indigenous language” (Binney 2005: 181). The first attempt to develop a consistent script was made by Thomas Kendall, a lay missionary in 1815 (Binney 2005: 72). His attempts were unsatisfactory so he went to Cambridge (UK) where, with Professor Lee and two Maori chiefs, Hongi Hika and Waikato, a new script was produced in 1821. This revised orthography included a “w” but not a “wh” (Rogers 1961: 480). It was realized by the 1840s that the “w” “1. has two sounds, one simple, as that in wind, etc: wai, water, waka, a canoe…. 2. An aspirated w, as in when, where, etc: whai, follow, whare, a house” and “there is little doubt

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but that an addition to our present characters will be necessary” (Maunsell in Rogers 1961: 481). William Williams (1844: xi) decided in the first edition of his dictionary to use “’w”, i.e. a raised comma followed by the letter, for the pre-aspirated “w”. The “’w” words were found in the “w” alphabetical list as if the raised comma was not there. In the second edition the digraph is replaced by “wh” in the “w” list but in the subsequent five editions “wh” words appear in their own separate list. In summary, Maori did not have a script prior to the nineteenth century (though many of the early visitors to the country had made attempts to develop one); the script was not a gift but was rather a tool for the Christian missionaries to further their work amongst Maori; the script was developed mainly by a lay missionary, a professor and two Maori; initially there was failure to distinguish between two sounds which are now represented by “w” and “wh”; and the digraph “wh” is now a fixed digraph in the Maori script. Almost all commentators had little or no knowledge of the origins of the script.

4.4. The pronunciation of the district’s name There was considerable interest about the pronunciation of the “w” in Wanganui and, more specifically, the “wh” in Whanganui. A handful of commentators were of the view that the correct “default” pronunciation of the “wh” is /f/ (0490). But this view was contested: • “Never in 700 years did Aotea Maori have the “F” (0286). In contrast many commentators saw /w/ as the correct pronunciation: • “Wanganui was recorded with a w not a wh, so my guess is that what they heard was a w” (0037). Some commentators believed that the correct pronunciation should be /hw/ and that therefore the correct spelling is “wh”: • “To quote… Sir Peter Buck, [aka] Te Rangi Hiroa, in The Coming of the Maori [1949], the Maori wh is distinct from the Polynesian f which is like the English f. It is pronounced like wh in what and where” (0229); and • “the way Ken Mair pronounced it on the box [television] last night was “Hwonganooee” (0229).

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One commentator is of the view that the “h” marks a glottal stop: • “in the 19th century there was no way to record glottal stops in NZ Maori… Usually an apostrophe like symbol is used however in NZ Maori “h” is used because the glottal stop found in Taranaki-Whan- ganui dialects reflects the “h” used in other dialects. The proper local dialectal pronunciation… is W?anganui (where? = glottal stop)” (0138); and • “If you listen to Carly Hemopo when she speaks on Te Karere her glottal stops are quite distinct especially when they come after the letter w” (0156). Amongst the commentators there was a general feeling that the spelling of the name was an irrelevant matter as it would be pronounced variously: • “Who the ‘H’ really cares. No matter how it is spelt, it won’t change how people pronounce it” (0202); and • “The Maori language women [on television]… admitted different Iwi’s [tribes] will continue to pronounce it in different ways” (0847). In contrast, for several commentators “the issue always has been one of correct orthography” (0733). Thus: • “You can pronounce it how you like, but the correct spelling is Whan- ganui. Is that such a big deal” (0313). Wakefield was specific when he stated: “many of our sounds, such as f… are not in the native language” (1845: 174). Laws himself was against the /f/ pronunciation. “We now hear much mangling of the pronunciation… seeking to impose an ‘f’ where none exists”. So was one of his councillors: “The ‘f’ is an invention” (Laws 2008). However, the situa- tion is actually rather ambiguous. Hiroa stated “the use of the English f sound for wh such as fafai for whawhai (to fight) is a post European development adopted by some tribes” (1949: 75), Biggs stated “Pro- nounce wh as in ‘whale’ (not ‘wail’) or as f. Either pronunciation is correct” (1969: 132), while Krupa wrote “the bilabial fricative ø (written wh) is being replaced by f in” Maori (1982: 21). More recently Harlow wrote “this [“wh”] is of all the consonants in Maori the one which shows the widest range of pronunciations… Nonetheless, the most usual pronunciation of this phoneme in modern Maori is the same as the English /f/, involving touching the lower lip with the top front teeth” (2001: 13).

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There are two different responses to this view to the /w/-/wh/ dispute. First it was not realized for several years that there are two sounds /w/ and /hw/, and an examination of most maps and texts prior to about 1860 shows that almost all places which today would be spelt with “wh” were then spelled with a “w”, for example, Kawia, Wan- garei and Wakatane. The initial letter would have been pronounced /w/ by almost all Pakeha and /hw/ by possibly almost all Maori. The second is that, even though it is known that there are two distinct sounds, the /w/ is used out of habit because the distinction between these two sounds has almost disappeared in modern Englishes. On the glottal stop Maori in general do not have a glottal stop, or “silent consonant”. However, there are glottal stops in the Western or Taranaki dialects which include the Whanganui tribal areas. In these the /h/ is replaced by a glottal stop /?/, so standard Maori words such as “haere” /haere/ and “mihi” /mihi/ become /?aere/ and /mi?i/ (Intellec- tual Property Office of New Zealand, 2010), but never in the post /w/ position commented on above and in Laws submission (Section 2, L8). A related issue is also raised by several commentators was whether the Maori of the area spoke a dialect and how this affected the pronunciation of the name: • “the first consonant in the word ‘whanga’ is pronounced in the local dialect as a hw” (0139); • “the coastal Wanganui area [tribe]… pronounced it with a sound more like a “w” while the tribe up the river away from the coast pronounced it closer to a “wh”. None pronounced it “f” (0628); and • “The “Wh” is not pronounced “F”, this is as per the local Wanga- nui maori, not as per the general maori language” (0583). The Laws submission (see Points L8, L9 and L10 in Section 4) indicated the belief that there is a dialect and the reason for the spelling as Wanganui is because it best reflects the local dialect pronunciation as a /w/. In contrast, the Runanga in their submission (see Points R5, R8 and R9 in Section 4), stated that “the correct spelling is Whanga- nui” but did not indicate the correct pronunciation. Commentators varied in their views. In summary, the central issue for the submissions was that of the spelling of the district’s name. However, many commentators felt that a change in the spelling would lead to, or even force, a change in the pronunciation and hence both spelling and pronunciation were

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commented on. The general feeling was that, irrespective of the spelling, the initial part of the name would be pronounced in a variety of ways: /w/, /hw/ and /f/ and, though it is quite inappropriate, even with a glottal stop. It seems that /hw/ was the traditional and is a continuing pronunciation but that it is giving way to /f/. Also, it seems that locally there is a dialect that drops its /h/ in favour of a glottal stop, but this does not apply to the “h” in “Whanganui as it is part of the digraph “wh” representing the single phoneme /hw/.

4.5. The meanings of Wanganui and Whanganui There are three components in the words in the discussions about “Wanganui” and “Whanganui”. There is no disagreement about “nui”: in Maori it means “big”, “large”, “extensive” and the like. The debate is about the other two. One commentator queried the meaning of the recommended change: • “but those who want the ‘h’ back in the name claim that ‘Wanga- nui’ isn’t even a word—what does ‘Whanganui’ actually mean? Or is that too easy a question?” (1015). Some of the commentators focused on the lack of meaning of “wanga” and “wanganui”: • “Change it to Whanganui! It doesnt mean anything with no H. Why wuld you want your town to not have a meaning” (0331); and • “There is no English word ‘wanga’ and nothing in the Oxford dictionary even closely connected to ‘nui’” (0553). In contrast are those who claim that “whanga” has a literal meaning: • “Whanganui meaning Whanga—Opening/ entrance to the sea and nui—big/large, therefore, the large entrance of the river to the ocean or big mouth of the river—Whanganui” (0076); and • “The name “Whanganui” means big harbour and it must surely have been applied to the area where Whanganui now is before it was given to the river. Rivers are not “whanga”. Rivers are “awa” so the river took its name from the harbour at the place where it opened out into the sea. That is a “whanga” and that is exactly where Whanganui city now is” (0988).

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Laws has claimed that “Wanganui” has evolved from its original Maori (L5) and, in effect, is now an English word (Laws 2008). How- ever, those who assert that “wanga” and “nui” are not English words are correct because examination of earlier and current British English and New Zealand English dictionaries show that they do not have entries for these words, either singly or combined. There are two main literal meanings of the river’s name, both from the Runanga (2009). Both are about “a long wait”. Thus, traditions about Kupe, the earliest explorer in the area, state that those members of his crew who had stayed at the river mouth had a long (nui) wait (whanga) before Kupe returned from exploring the interior. Hence “Te Whanga-nui-a-Kupe”. Much later a man named Hau had to wait a long time, but this time on the river bank, for the tide to go out so that he could cross the river to continue pursuing his errant wife, Wairaka. He either named it again or repeated the earlier name. The main Maori-English dictionaries include the following meanings (with the date of their first entry): (1) wanga: to watch, to wait for, to lie in wait (William Williams 1844); (2) whanga: a bay; any place on one side (W. L. Williams 1871); (3) whanga: a bay, a bight, a nook (Herbert W. Williams 1917); and (4) whanga: a stretch of water (Herbert W. Williams 1917). Interestingly, in view of the Runanga’s R4 comment, Kemp (1870: 15) states “whanga—formerly a harbour, now obsolete, except in names of places”. Consequently, the point being made by commentators that “wanga” and “wanganui” have no meaning in Maori is correct, while the traditional meaning, “the long wait”, and the commentators’ pos- ited meanings, such as “big harbour” and the like as given in the dictionaries and Kemp, are all possible meanings of the word “whanganui”. This is not “a modern meaning [that] has incorrectly developed” (See R4 in Section 2).

4.6. On Ken Mair Ken Mair is a political activist. He is a spokesperson for iwi in the area around the Whanganui River, and was one of the organisers of the 1995 occupation of Moutoa Gardens in Wanganui in protest at

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grievances under the Treaty of Waitangi. The issue has generated many comments about him and those who submitted the submission to change the name to “Whanganui”. Apart from one reference to him as Muir (0004), such comments ranged from the mild to the extreme: • “renaming a major New Zealand town is nothing but a few petty individuals wanting to sound self-important and to put their own name in the history books” (0011); • “What I object too though is the involvement of the despicable Ken Mair, a person who should have been charged with sedition /treason years ago. If anyone has severley damaged race relations in NZ and has put Maori in a bad light, it is him” (0226); and • “Perhaps we are just hearing the voice of some vocal minority among the maori who wants to impose their dialect on other tribes” (0463). The work habits of Mair and his associates were also attacked: • “I believe Ken Mair was a school teacher untill he discovered a crusier way of life” (0172); and • “Really, come on people! Ken Mair et al how about doing something more important for your people that would deal with real issues that are affecting Maoris eg. Domestic violence, child abuse, skills training, education just to name a few” (0214). However, only a few commentators supported directly the actions of the Runanga: • “Congratulations to the Iwi who think it is important enough to have corrected what others have done in error” (0247); and • “It is the right of Maori to assert the correct spelling of their language” (0253). The commentators showed considerable antagonism towards Ken Mair, the others associated with the Runanga submission and towards those who support the submission. In contrast, there were only a few who supported the action taken by the Runanga.

4.7. On Michael Laws Michael Laws has had a chequered career ranging, for example, from labouring jobs, through university student, researcher and member of

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parliament for two different parties, to mayor of Wanganui District Council until mid 2010 and continuing member of the Whanganui District Health Board. He is also a radio talk back host, author and newspaper columnist. He is reported as saying “he reserved ‘the right to be controversial and outspoken’” (CNN Wire Staff 2010). Laws attracted favourable comments from several commentators, ranging from simple statements of support, such as “Go Michael Laws” (0583), he “is doing a great job” (0580), “He’s the best Mayor in this country” (0736) to more fulsome praise: • “our Mayor—he’s a wonderful person with a big heart and a love for this community” (0665); and • “I like Mr Laws, he has guts to even engage in a debate. Most of us beg off, the stakes are against us. We are called racist if we have an opinion” (0637). In contrast many commentators criticized Laws in some way. There were simple appeals for Laws to stop his actions against the issue, e.g. “Sharpen up Michael Laws! You’re an embarrassment” (0313). There were many negative comments about specific aspects of his personality: “his arrogant posturing” (0832), “an aggressive and intolerant manner” (0874), his “ego trip” (0859), he “make a fool of him self on national tv…a wannabe dictator” (0967), and he he is “a complete joke” (0421), “the aptly placed leader of idiots” (0406), “a looney” (0793), a “mean spirited, red neck” (0250), and “a one-eyed monster” (0319). Further: • “Laws’ stance is ‘bloody-mindedness, fuelled by what can only be said, is a dislike of being told they’re wrong by their uppity Maori minority’” (0517); and • “It is becoming more and more obvious that the man needs help and more and more obvious that he is the wrong man in the wrong job. He needs to leave the stage and go and have a (very very long) nanny nap!” (0910). The issue between the Wanganui District Council and the Runanga was one where, perhaps, discussion between the two could have come to an agreement. The commentators noted that apparently such discussions had not been held: • “But, no the Council’s arrogance and inherent racism wouldn’t allow them to do that” (0838); and

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• “Perhaps you [Mr Laws] might like putting some energy for a change into improving race relations in your town, making Maori there feel like they are included in your future plans, that they can lift their heads with pride in their heritage without us whities feeling offended by their need to do so. Perhaps you might like to connect. Now there’s a thought” (0574). Many commented on Laws’ apparent ignorance about the history of the district: • “his lack of awareness of the history of the Whanganui area, and a conscious decision to adhere to ignorance” (0517); and • “Unfortunately…Mayor Michael Laws and his council are clinging to the past” (0838). A feature of the contributions was the perhaps deliberate misspelling of Michael Laws’ name to make the point, rightly or wrongly, that if he wanted people to spell his name correctly then he should favour the correct spelling of the district’s name. Examples are: Lawz (0082), Micael (0610), Michel (0472), Micheal (0967), Mic’ael (0547) and Mikal Lors (0793). A further event, in August 2009, gave commentators cause to write about Laws. Seven eleven and twelve year old children, all second-language learners of Maori, wrote short letters in Maori to Laws asking that he support the name Whanganui. Four of the letters used the word “pukuriri” which can mean “angry”, “upset”, “cross”, “frustrated” or “grumpy”. The letters were translated at Laws’ insti- gation. The letter writers made the same points but in quite different ways. Here, in English, is one of them (Dominion Post 2009).

Hello Michael laws My name is Teina from Otaki School. The topic of this letter is about the name of the town Wanganui. In my opinion Wanganui should be Whanganui, as I recognize “Whan- ganui” to mean “Big Harbour.” I do not agree with the council and non-maori decision as this is maori land, hence put the “H” back. Change the name of the town with the “H” back, please reconsider Michael. Laws refused to make public his reply to the children but it appears he wrote that “there are so many deficiencies of both fact and logic”,

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that “when your class starts addressing the real issues affecting Maori- dom… then I will take the rest of your views seriously”, that the children’s teachers should be sacked and that “Controlling your anger might be a start!” (TVNZ 2009a). He made a second public response: “the tone of the letters had shocked and stunned both himself and his staff”, “each letter recounted the personal anger of the writer”, “he was very surprised that any school teacher would have allowed them to be sent”, their ignorant demand was against the wishes of Wan- ganui citizens, the change they asked for was actually “relayed to them by an adult, or adults” and that “I am sure that after a good chat [between him and the children] any misunderstanding will be removed from this discussion” (Laws 2009c). He also stated that they were “seven kids with a clear political agenda” (Wichtel 2009). The commentators split, with few in support of Laws: • “I do not believe for a single second that 7 kids in one class took it upon themselves to each write a letter demanding the spelling to be changes…. Good on Laws for calling them out. Those teachers should be called to task and fired” (0643). Most, however, disagreed with the position taken by Laws: • “He should also apologize to the Otaki children for his abusive response to their letter” (0997); • “he’s gutless for picking on easy targets” (0670); and • “He uses his position to bully our children, disgrace our language and belittle our culture. It would be of no surprise if ‘slavery’ was next on his agenda” (0601). Only one commentator saw that perhaps both sides were at fault and the matter could have been handled more constructively: • “Two wrongs don’t make a right, why were very young children used to do this and why did Mr Laws not act his age and with the dignity his position commands of him?” (0635). Laws has been and still is a controversial figure and, even though Ken Mair is a similar figure, Laws attracted about five comments to each one about Mair. Those indicating support for Laws approved of his stand against those who supported the spelling “Whanganui”. In contrast, the contributions against Laws ranged widely. Some simply asked him to stop his opposition to the name change, while others

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commented on specific aspects of his personality and on his personality as a whole, his apparent unwillingness to compromise, his apparent lack of knowledge of the history of the area and accused him of being a racist. Several commentators spelled his name incorrectly, perhaps to show him that correct spelling matters. The majority of commentators did not support his stance on the Otaki children’s letters and some stated he was a bully.

4.8. On referendums and democracy Reference has been made to a two question survey that was carried out in 1991 in which the second question asked “If the “h” was added to the river name should it also be added to the city name?” (See Sec- tion 3). The Wanganui District Council has held two district wide referendums on the spelling of the district’s name: in 2006 and 2009. Many of the commentators were interested in the two referendums and their relationship to democracy and that between a majority and a minority. The findings of the two referendums are summarized in Table 3 and it can be seen that the majority of those who voted (a) favoured Wanganui (80.4% and 77.3% in 2006 and 2009 respectively), (b) represented 44.5% and 46.2% of those on the electoral roll, and (c) represented 31.2% and 33.2% of the district’s residents. It is not known how many of the voters were Maori.

11 February 2006 21 May 2009 the number of residents* 43,800 43,400 the number on electoral roll* 30,752 31,200 the number who voted 17,037 18,636 the number in favour of Wanganui 13,690 14,410 the number in favour of Whanganui 3,042 4,153 the number of informal and blank votes 305 44 those in favour of Wanganui as a % of: – the number who voted 80.4 77.3 – the number on the electoral roll 44.5 46.2 – the number of residents 31.2 33.2 * estimates. The figures vary a little from source to source. Table 3: The results of the 2006 and 2009 referendums

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In commenting on the referendums, Laws often confused the number of residents or “the people” with the number who voted. Thus on the 2006 referendum he stated that “the views of Wanganui people were overwhelming. Over 80% wanted the name kept as it was” (Laws 2009a) and on the 2009 referendum he stated “The council has chosen its spelling and like 80% of businesses and people” in Wanganui it is Wanganui (Laws 2010c). In fact only 31.2% and 33.2% of the residents supported the name “Wanganui” and there is no public indication about the level of support amongst business people. On this issue one New Zealand wide survey was held by UMR Research Ltd (UMR) in April 2009 and three were held in September 2009: a UMR survey of 750 people by telephone (TVNZ3 2009); and a New Zealand Herald poll with 7,483 votes and a YahooXtra poll with 13,362 votes (Laws 2009d). The results are summarized in Table 4.

% in favour of % unsure/ % both SURVEY/POLL depends/ Wanganui and (all in 2009) Wanganui Whanganui don’t care Whanganui UMR Survey April 59 30 11 – UMR Survey September 62 25 13 – – Maori respondents 37 50 13 – – NonMaori respondents 66 21 13 – NZ Herald poll September 71 20 – 9 YahooXtra poll September 75 17 3 – Table 4: Percentages in four New Zealand wide surveys/polls about Wan- ganui and Whanganui

Commentators commented on referendums and surveys, on the results of the referendums and on the relationship of the referendums and surveys to democracy. Some praised Laws for holding referendums: “Good on Laws for doing his job and sticking up for his residents’ preferences” (1012). Many were of the view that the results of the referendums should be adhered to, not just by Wanganui District Council but by the NZGB and everyone in New Zealand. For example: • “It should be Wanganui as the residants voted on a refurendum and it was clear that they wanted the name to be Wanganui. End of Story” (0394); and

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• “77% of residents voted against” the “h” (0892). And in a serious but more humorous vein (“f” is to be read as “wh”): • “Fo agrees? Fen the citizens of Wanganui voted with an over felming majority for no change, then that is fat a referendum is all about and fy we have them, fereof stop fining. The people have voted. Few!” (0034). However, there were others who felt that the referendums were of little value: • “There are three kinds of lies; lies, damned lies and statistics. The often quoted statistic that the referendum showed the vast majority don’t want the ‘h’ in Wanganui is… misleading” (0397); and • “the Council was hell bent on self destruction it organised two sham referendums which mean nothing” (0838). Many of the commentators argued that because the majority had decided on something their decision must be adhered to as this was what democracy was all about: • “When the ‘people’ vote and say they want their city to remain without the ‘H’ that should be the end to it… this is a democratic country and democracy works on majority” (0757); and • “The people of Wanganui have overwhelmingly voted for the status quo—let democracy prevail” (0853). Many commentators indicated that in a democracy minorities, particularly the Maori minority, had no rights or say in decisions: • “A minority of Maoris ranting and raving should not force a change on the majority” (0256); and • “if the will of the majority is to be constantly subverted by a dis- gruntled minority then the result is simply chaos” (0415). In contrast many commentators were of the opinion that the rights and interest of minorities must be recognized and accommodated: • “The majority, be it in the city or the nation, do not have a right to impose its collective viewpoint upon a cultural minority” (0253); • “Democracy’s great, but to prevent the ‘tyranny of the majority’ (Plato) we have constitutional limits on power to protect the interests of minorities, eg: Bill of Rights, Treaty of Waitangi etc” (0961); and

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• “Since democracy is the rule of the masses, Maori will ever be trampled on won’t they?” (1006). A further issue discussed by the commentators was who should have the right to decide what the name of the district should be: • “The only people who have any business deciding how Wanganui should be spelt are the people who live there” (0844); and • “Bug out outsiders—let the locals decide—and they have” (0931). In contrast, one commentator pointed out that: • “Culturally the town (or is it a city) does not belong only to those listed on the electoral roll. There are after all children and teenagers who have an opinion but were excluded… There are many people who were born, grew up, lived, been schooled, worked… in Whanganui [but now live elsewhere] and they too… may feel they have a strong connec- tion to the city—yet [were] excluded from the referendum” (0820). The commentators split between those who on the one hand believed the referendum results should be adhered to and who advocated majority rule and, on the other hand, those who believed that the minority needed protection. Only one of the commentators pointed out that there are many people throughout New Zealand who could have a voice in the decision about the name.

4.9. On the New Zealand Geographic Board On 17 September 2009 the NZGB indicated that it would recommend to the Government that the name be changed to Whanganui, but the decision would be made by the Minister for Land Information. The Board itself and its members were frequently commented on in negative terms; they were characterized as “do gooders” (0508), “a bunch of half-whits who apparently think democracy doesn’t matter” (0703),”a snivling academic institution” (0787), “sycop-ants to a vocal minority” (0301) and “pinheads” (0814). Many commentators were against the NZGB’s decision, claiming that it was contrary to the wishes of the residents of Wanganui and hence contrary to democracy: • “We now have something in common with the Nazis and Russia. Both changed place names to suit their political masters” (0682); and

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• “the New Zealand Geographic Board only took into consideration the views of a few maori radicals and totally ignored the democratic wishes of the residents. Unbiased? Don’t make me laugh! Undemocratic? Certainly. Once again, they are pandering to a tiny minority” (0844). Many accused the NZGB of political correctness: they were “PC boot lickers” (0079), “PC correct idiots that know best” (0652), and guilty of “PC nonsense” (0265); and they were a “PC brigade” (0688). Their decision was an example of “political correctness from the w*****s in Whellington” (0754) with “PC-BS alive and well pandering to a whining minority (0694). However, others were against those who labelled the issue as “political correctness”. For example: “There is nothing PC about correcting spelling (0262) and “Get over your PC rubbish, the past, and your sensitive feelings” (0550). In contrast to those who viewed the NZGB’s decision as wrong were those who favoured the decision for “Whanganui”: • “I say congratuations to the Geographic Board for taking the stand they have. It just makes sense and corrects an historical error” (0343); and • “I am rapt that the Geographic Board unanimously supported a change to the correct—Maori accepted—spelling ‘Whanganui’. Fortunately the Board was unswayed by the puerility, divisiveness, and intolerance of Michael Laws and his ilk. They supported their decision with reason and fact-based logic” (0877). Other commentators were of the view that the district would be better off if a new name was created. Suggestions range from the facetious, e.g. “Zhanganui [as it] will be easier once the Chinese take over” (0094), Wonganewy (0211), “Bro’ town up north (with a river)” (0364), “Imbecileville” (0364), “Wonganooy” (0466), “Funganooi” (0424), “Londonwanganui (Just to remind the locals who is in charge)” (0532), Smallville (0550), “Wong-ga-n-yew-ee’ Looks awful, sounds awful, but never mind it is pure British settler so it must be good” (0577), “New London, or Queen Elizabeth City, or even Whilliamson?” (0886) and “Lawsville” (0901), to the one serious suggestion, “River City” (0553). Only one commentator questioned the difference between names in a dialect and names in standard Maori, querying why dialect names were allowed in some instances but not in others: • “I don’t think the geographic board should be so rigid about the ‘standard’ spelling. Are they telling Ngai Tahu [a tribe] to change

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Aoraki/Mt Cook to Aorangi[/Mt Cook] or is Otago to be Otakou or Rakiura (Stewart Is) to be Rangikura. Of course not” (0361). Several commentators favoured a double name, similar to the double names already in use, such as Taranaki/Mt Egmont and Aoraki/Mt Cook, e.g. “Whanganui or Wanganui” (0016), “then list both” (0067), “Whanganui Wanganui” (0034), (0310) and (0649), “Wanganui Whan- ganui” (0382) and “alternative spellings. Take your pick” (1024). Laws disagreed with the NZGB’s decision and, in a press meeting, declared it “racist and wrong” and stated “We will be appealing directly to the Government” against the NZGB’s recommendation, will review the legality of the NZGB’s decision and “will be ensuring that the will of… the people of Wanganui and 172 years of our history, heritage and shared culture and mana are not struck over by this group who are unrepresentative, unfeeling, unthinking and frankly have no compassion for my community” (Laws 2009c). His stance was supported by one commentator: • “Michael Laws you are right to challenge the decision of Geographic board… It is time we have people like Michael Laws who are prepared to speak out and fight for majority. Go Michael Laws and people of Wanganui” (0943). Several commentators disagreed with Laws’ views: • “Maybe Mr Laws should grow up and accept the Boards recommendation [and not appeal] and start dealing with larger issues such as rural unemployment, domestic violence and child abuse in his city” (0997). Only two commentators commented on the actual role of the NZGB: • “the geograpic board by law have to recommend the use of the Maori spelling if there is that option!” (0349); and • “the NZ Geographic Board were set up with the legislated mandate to return as many place names as possible to their original Maori ones” (0844). So, who is responsible for place names in New Zealand? This has varied through time from act to act. The 1894 Act contained two important clauses (Griffiths 2002: 20): (3) “in all such alterations and future naming, preference shall be given to the original Maori names”; and

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(6) “whenever… [any place] is generally known or named by a name professing to be a Maori name, but is not the true spelling of the said Maori name, or is a corruption thereof, the Government may…alter the name of such locality or natural feature as afore- said in consonance with the correct Maori orthography”. Subsequent reviews to this act in 1908 and 1909 retained the two clauses. An Honorary New Zealand Geographic Board was established in 1924 to advise on place names. Under the New Zealand Geographic Board Act of 1946 the relevant functions under Section 8 of this act were: (a) To adopt rules of orthography and nomenclature in respect of place names in New Zealand; (b) To examine cases of doubtful spelling of place names in New Zealand, and determine the spelling to be adopted on official maps…; (d) To collect original Maori place names for recording on official maps; and (e) To determine what alien names appearing on official maps should be replaced by Maori or British names…. A further function was added in 1998: Section 8(da) To encourage the use of original Maori place names on official maps. And under Sec- tion 15 the Board’s recommendation was final if there had been no objections to the proposed name, but if there had been objections then, after receiving advice from the NZGB, the relevant Minister made the final decision. The New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Tau- naha o Aotearoa) Act 2008 broadly followed the 1946 act with one significant difference. Section 6 states that: In order to recognise and respect the Crown’s responsibility to take appropriate account of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) (a) section 11(1)(d) confers on the Board the function of collect- ing original Maori names of geographic features for recording on official charts and official maps; and (b) section 11(1)(e) confers on the Board the function of encour- aging the use of original Maori names of geographic features on official charts and official maps.

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In Section 11(1)(b) the Board may also examine cases of doubtful spelling of names for the same purpose, while in Section 20 “the Minister, after making any inquiry he or she thinks fit, may determine the [Board’s] proposal by confirming, modifying, or rejecting the decision of the Board”. Through public consultation the NZGB has made hundreds of name changes—in spelling—over the years, and with two or three exceptions, commentators appeared to have little knowledge of its history and actions, functions and membership and the names that it has changed.

4.10. Identities in New Zealand Both the Runanga (points R7, R8, R9 and R10) and the Wanganui District Council (points L1, L2, L3 and L4) claim that their “identities” are at issue: One commentator stated that “It is a clash of wills” (0478), but only a few of the commentators made direct reference to their own identities. A few indicated they were Maori: • “as a local boy from the river…we people of the river will always refer to the Wanganui as Whanganui te Awa…Ko au te Awa, ko te Awa ko au. I am the river and the river is me” (0076); and • “After all Maori are Tangata Whenua it is our right to name our land. Pakeha have changed Maori place names enough” (0322). Support for the Runanga’s submission can be seen as a strong expression of support for Maori issues: • “Put it a H in it. It’s an important part of maori history and It is disrespectful to not acknowledge the subject … The subject is more than just deciding weather to put a H in the name and expands into a very sensitive subject of culture” (0100); • “Learn and protect the [Maori] culture of Aotaerowa [Aotearoa, i.e. New Zealand] if you want respect!” (0104); and • “Acknowledge our mistakes, honor the treaty, treat all peoples as you wish to be treated yourself and let the Whanganui Maori have there mana” (0439). This support was viewed by several commentators in quite strong terms:

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• “Laws is incapable of looking at history through anything other than a western, colonial, eurocentric perspective” and this proposed change is part of the “process of decolonization” (0469); • “Maori have just been patiently waiting to right quite a lot of wrongs over the last 200 years” (0781); and • “Why is it that the indigenous people of this country are still fighting to uphold their own Customary rights?…spare a thought for the people who are still fighting to uphold their mana, their reo—let alone the correct pronounciation of their names and place names” (0316). Several commentators were of the view that many, apparently Pakeha, commentators were seeing the issue in racial terms, i.e. that it was racist to support the spelling “Whanganui”: • “And why are they [the commentators] so racist to Maori?” (0220). And in a rather ironic vein: • “As soon as anything to do with maori we white folk just love to walk all over them and dump our intolerant views and ignorance on them and turn it into a race issue” (0232); and • “but the brouhaha about adding back the ‘h’ is not caused as you suggest by anti-pakeha sentiment… but by the reverse—it is anti- Maori—it is about digging in as the poor beleaguered Pakeha (of which I am one) tries to prove that he is still on top” (0553). Maori are the “tangata whenua”, i.e. the first people to be here, and have their own language, Maori. They probably arrived by canoes as a consequence of a few random landfalls in the fourteenth century (Prickett 1991 and Howe 2003: 171-176) and spread throughout the country bestowing names on all geographical features and population centres. Underlying their identity are several things, for example: the links through whakapapa (genealogies) to the first arrivals and their waka (canoe, i.e. tribe, subtribe and extended family), to the historical lands these formerly occupied or still occupy and to the Maori language. In addition, is the consciousness of and involvement in the struggle through the Treaty of Waitangi against Pakeha to redress the wrongs of the past and gain rangatiratanga (autonomy or self determination) while living and participating in the wider New Zealand society.

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Similarly, a few indicated they were Pakeha: • “my birthright, as a born and bred Wanganui resident, cannot be taken away by minority separatist troublemakers” (0665); and • “I am a ‘White New Zealander of European Descent’ who grew up in Wanganui… If you change the name of the town I was born in, the town I went to school, got married and my children were born in, does that no steal my history, my culture? To me Wanganui does mean something—it is my spiritual home” (0272).

Many commentators agreed with the historical and contemporary posi- tions taken by Laws: • “Whitey invaded NZ, took the land off the Maori, and we’ll call places what we want. That’s what you get to do when you invade somewhere” (0526); • “generations of existing people have lived with ‘Wanganui’ and it’s part of their identity and lives” (0208); and • “Wanganui needs no h to give itself meaning. That it is and has been for a long time the treasured name of one of New Zealand’s most notable cities gives it meaning enough” (0281).

Many also agreed that the referendums had shown conclusively that the name should be retained as Wanganui and that support for Whan- ganui was undesirable as it subverted democracy and led to chaos (0301): • “Wanganui should be left as is… as reflected in a novel Western democratic process—voting” (0301); • “the usage of 170 years supercedes any past misspelling It leaves any decision for change in the hands of those people who live there. It is their city, their home and they have to live with the name. They alone should make the decision” (0508); and • “Maori say it’s their right & it’s only a letter change. Well white people can say the majority of people prefer the way it’s been spelt for well over 100 years, so it’s their right to say to Maori, it’s only a letter, toughen up” (0436).

One of the ways in which most of the commentators opposed the Whanganui spelling was by arguing that it was not about spelling but rather about Maori having hidden agendas, for example to rewrite

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New Zealand history (0478), to “create a divisive community” i.e. Maori against Pakeha (0214). Thus: • “this debate is about creating a rift, a point of difference, a power base and control to use as a tool for the further seperation of New Zealand society” (0172); and • “There is no doubt that the push for an ‘h’ in Wanganui is being lead by a xenophobic crowd who are bent on trouble making. Xeno- phobia divides a country and is to be discouraged… Xenophobic ringleaders should be identified and made to disclose their real agenda” (0769). There is one tongue in cheek, or sarcastic, riposte to the hidden agenda, conspiracy theorists. • “We have been plotting and scheming to take over the world and the first step to doing that is correct spelling” (1000). Many who support the Wanganui spelling assert that Maori should focus on other “Maori issues”, e.g. “Domestic violence [and] low literacy rates” (0196), education, child abuse and skills training (0214) and should stop being “bludgers” (0901). That is, Maori were wasting everyone’s time (0055) and (0790) and money (0051) and (0488) on a trivial issue. Another common topic was that it is Maori who are racists: • “It’s good to see racism is alive and well in NZ. I’m talking about the Maori on this blog who seem to think they have a right to be given preferential treatment over everyone else. Whether it be their own flag flying, their way of spelling the English language or preferential rights to the beach. It is racism anyway you look at it… Everything from Maori schools to Maori seats [in Parliament] is racist…I am sick to death with the racist behaviour of the so called “Maori activists” who are nothing more than a bunch of racists that are tolerated because no politician… has the gonnads to call them out. They all want special privileges for Maori based on their race. They are racists” (0613); and • “I agree with Laws, this is a racist move, fulled by [Maori] people who are small minded, ignoring what the people who live there want… people who are stuck in the past and can not and will not further the country and their communities for the common good” (0751).

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Further, several contributors were of the view that Maori should pay, particularly from their Treaty of Waitangi settlements for past grievances, for any costs associated with a change to Whanganui: • “A simple solution—as Treaty settlements are given to restore history and raise the mana of horribly-wronged Maori then use any Whanganui-iwi payout to fund any and all changes needed to any sort of documentation, maps, signs, advertising etc. For anyone. For any business or organisation. No matter how spurious, unprovable or vague. No questions asked” (0301). Some commentators felt that the government was forcing people to act in ways that were contrary to their own wishes and identities: • the government has “decided to change a community’s identity against the community’s expressed will… It’s wrong and danger- ous. In the future, anyone working in government departments… will be legally compelled to use the Maori identity” (0856); and • “NZ had already progressed to the point of legally enforcing the language/culture of one race without the population noticing much because they are deluded that they still have some kind of free choice of identity. Perhaps they may start to wake up to the fact that NZ is making progressive laws to remove the freedom of the indi- vidual, even to the expression of who they are, and criminalise those who don’t comply. Any race other than Maori expressing their ‘identity’ in Wanganui will do so at the cost of their livelihoods, careers and/or business enterprise” (0856). Immigrants, mostly from Europe, came to New Zealand in increasing numbers in the first half of the nineteenth century and in the 1840s and 1850 several thousand British immigrants entered the country under various immigration schemes. The Treaty was initially hon- oured but the immigrants demanded more and more land and large scale war broke out in the 1860s. From about 1870 to the early 1970s the English speaking British were the dominant and had covert and overt assimilationist policies to move Maori from being barbarians to being civilized, and Maori were to be forced to conform to this image (Hill 2004: 19-20), i.e. to become “brown Pakeha”. The culture underlying Pakeha identity has been described by one Pakeha as “an agglomeration of odds and ends from other peoples’ traditions; decked out in the hand-me-down mores of Europe and

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latterly of the United States…but [with] virtually nothing from our largely unseen cohabiters of this land, the Maori” (Laidlaw 1991: 157). But more accurately and in spite of many protests that Pakeha do not have a culture, the reality is that as a whole they do have an integrated culture. The “white natives” (King 1999: 11) gained control of the colony and imposed their own ways over New Zealand. Thus the culture of Pakeha is in effect New Zealand’s civic and political culture. Two interesting comments are those that link the name to history, one supporting Wanganui, the other Whanganui: • “The ‘H’ will not reject, destory or undermine the past 170 years… In fact, it may serve to enhance the heritage of Whanganui by intro- ducing another layer of Whanganui’s history, which began long before British settlement” (0517); and • “The name [Wanganui] should be kept the same as it tells a story of how Maori and English language first interacted, how the Maori language, lacking its own written form, was first combined with the written language of Europeans. Stop trying to erase history” (0802). A few commentators sought a middle ground, in two senses: firstly by suggesting a two name solution to the issues—an inclusive approach—(see Section 4.9) and, secondly, by suggesting that Maori and Pakeha need to view themselves, both as individuals and collectively, as being one people, rather than two separate peoples: • “but sometime soon we all have to start focussing on NZ as a nation and put aside our differences and embrace each other for what we are—we are all immigrants to NZ—some just a few hundred years before others” (0928). In a related vein others regarded themselves or others as “mixed race” people: • “I’m part Maori, part White and the rest is genuinely unknown” (0193); and • “Now Maori, who actually almost look like white folk” (0781). Many, perhaps nearly all, Maori and a high percentage of Pakeha are of mixed race. Bassett (2010) writes that “well before the Treaty was signed in 1840, Pakeha whalers, sealers and traders had established liaisons with Maori women resulting in mixed race children”, while in the early years of the nineteenth century several thousand young

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Pakeha males became members of Maori communities (Bentley 2004: 12) and in the 1860s and 1870s British soldiers abducted and raped many Maori women (Bentley 2004: 196). The result of this is that today probably all Maori have Pakeha relatives and perhaps most Pakeha now have Maori relatives. Meredith (n.d.) argues that some New Zealanders are not concerned about the impurity, the stigma, the shame the sense of infe- riority of being of mixed race. He believes that some now avoid an exclusive Maori or Pakeha identity and appreciate in a positive way their heritage from both origins: they are both Maori and Pakeha. This section has shown that Maori are the indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand and that Pakeha, primarily from the United Kingdom, colonized and rapidly assume power throughout the country. Over the 170 years since the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, two main cultures with their attendant identities have emerged, namely Maori (who live in a Pakeha dominated society and, while identifying themselves as Maori, are bicultural and bilingual to varying extents) and Pakeha (few of whom are bicultural or bilingual). In addition a consciously bicultural identity has developed amongst a few. It has also shown that for those in favour of changing the spelling to “Whanganui” there are two clusters of meanings. In the first, correcting the spelling is a means: of acknowledging the Maori meaning of the name; of reasserting and strengthening the origin, history and identity (including mana) of the local iwi; of asserting the rights, through the Treaty of Waitangi, of the Maori minority vis-à-vis the Pakeha majority; and of the positive role of the New Zealand Geo- graphic Board. In the second, retaining the spelling “Wanganui” means: the continuation of colonialist and racist/racialist mentalities (in par- ticular those of the mayor of Wanganui); the denial of the Maori role in the development of the district; and the denial of a critical aspect of New Zealand history, the Treaty of Waitangi. For those supporting the spelling “Wanganui” there are also two clusters of meanings. In the first, the retention of the spelling “Wan- ganui” means: the affirmation, continuation and strengthening of the English origin, history and identity (including mana) of the district’s name and its inhabitants; the expression of the will of the majority, through referendums, for the name; and the strengthening of the name as a well established name known locally, nationally and internation- ally. In the second, the spelling “Whanganui” means: the militant,

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racist Maori minority imposes their view; a matter that, for those who do see value in the Treaty of Waitangi, is too trivial for the Treaty to be invoked; the beginnings of a slide from democracy to less preferred forms of government; an unrepresentative and politically correct New Zealand Geographic Board that is imposing its will on the district; and a government (Mr Williamson) that is ignoring the people of Wanganui and pandering, for political purposes, to that Maori minority. Only a few commentators felt that the way ahead was to bring the two groups together and, in so doing, favoured the use of both names in an inclusive way, and one or two saw that persons with a bicultural Maori and Pakeha identity would probably also favour both names.

5. The minister of Land Information’s decision and the aftermath The Minister for Land Information, Maurice Williamson, released his decision about Wanganui and Whanganui on 18 December 2009. However, even before this a few commentators had commented on his role in the issue: • “Imagine if Williamson decides for “Whanganui” how we will have to explain… that the words Whanganui (for the river) and Wanganui (for the town) are actually the same” (0925); and • “Bugger off Minister. It is NOT your job to name towns” (1021). The Minister announced that “the official geographic name for the city of Wanganui will be the alternatives ‘Whanganui’ or ‘Wanganui’” and stated (Williamson 2009): • “alternative names for the city allows people to choose the name they prefer”; • the “ local iwi were seeking an acknowledgement of something that is very important to them. They wanted recognition and respect for their history and their language”; • “the majority of the city’s residents did not want change forced on them”; • “alternative naming respectfully acknowledges the correct spelling of the Maori word ‘Whanganui’. It also respects the views of those who have always known the city’s name to be spelt ‘Wanganui’”; and • “all official documents will be able to use either form of the spelling as the official city name. However, Crown agencies will be expected

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to move to the name ‘Whanganui’ over time”, e.g. in their signage, publications and other official documents”. The Minister’s decision to allow the use of both names by ordinary people, but only eventually Whanganui by the Government, was one for the middle ground, a position supported by only a few commentators. Mair commented on the decision as follows (New Zealand Her- ald 2009): • “The Crown have done the right thing from our point of view in that they have given clear directions to Crown agencies to ensure that our name is spelled correctly. We are delighted”. Laws commented on the decision as follows (New Zealand Herald 2009): • he “hailed the move… as an early Christmas present for the city and district”; and • it “allowed the people of Wanganui to determine their own identity and destiny”. After the decision had been made Mair seems to have made no further comments, but Laws engaged in three further activities. He agreed that “The city and region may have two official spellings—Wanganui and Whanganui” and resolved to lead the production of “a guideline for national media and organisations as to how the city should be pronounced” i.e. without an /f/ sound (Laws 2010a). When, on 26 March 2010, the New Zealand Land Transport Agency erected “Whanganui” signs at the district council’s boundaries Laws “ordered that provoca- tive signs…be removed because they are both illegal and misrepresent our city’s name”; the Agency “has illegally rebranded our city” (Laws 2010b). Further, Laws stated that the Mayor’s Office will be making complaints to both the NZ Press Council and the Broadcasting Standards Authority, saying that the media renaming of the city and district as “Whanganui” “is illegal and insulting to our community” (Laws 2010c).

6. Conclusion Several points can be made about the selected comments. First, it seems that their authors had not read the two submissions and, second, because they made errors, most seemed to be ignorant: of New

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Zealand history; of Wanganui/Whanganui history; of the current widespread use of the two spellings by a variety of organizations in the district; of the origins of the script used for the Maori language; of the range of possibilities for the pronunciation of the two names; of the role of the NZGB; and of the importance of the Treaty of Wai- tangi. For most, it seems they drew their knowledge from other commentators in the forum and possibly from elsewhere, e.g. from newspapers and talk back programs. Third, many knew of at least the harbour/bay/estuary meaning of the word whanga but many claimed this was irrelevant as they were writing about a new English word, wanga. Fourth, some commentators directly attacked Ken Mair, the spokesperson for the Whanganui submission, but about five times as many directly attacked Laws, the signatory to the Wanganui District Council submission and the responder to the Otaki children’s letters. Sixth many of the supporters of the Wanganui spelling indicated in a variety of ways marked prejudice against Maori while, excluding their views about Laws, only a few supporters of Whanganui viewed Wan- ganui supporters in such a way. Seventh, only a handful of commentators wrote of unity between Maori and Pakeha and of an emerging consciously bicultural identity that could accept both Wanganui and Whanganui. In summary, those who supported the spelling “Wanganui” favoured the English origins and history of the district and its identity and attacked Maori in a variety of personal and general racist ways for opposing those attributes, while those who supported the spelling “Whanganui” supported Maori identity and attacked, less aggres- sively, those who supported “Wanganui”. A few commentators were distressed by the tone of many of the comments and one wrote:

• “One of the most unfortunate aspects of this debate is the effect that it must certainly be having on young Maori who are watching in disbelief at the shrill bitter sounding postings of people who seem to be engaged in a beat-up of anything Maori. It is sad that the culture of their ancestors continues to be denigrated by so many. If I were a young Maori, growing up in a bi-cultural city like Micael Law’s Whanganui… it would seem obvious to me that for all its [Pakeha] pretended concern to incorporate my [Maori] culture when it suits, it is just a big sham” (1003).

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Finally, three quotes—in terms of identity—express the hopes for the future: (1) From those supporting Maori identity: “it is a transitional process… Inevitably it will lead to the correct spelling of our name and that eventually everybody will spell Wanganui with an ‘h’ in it” (Mair in New Zealand Herald 2009); (2) From those supporting the “English identity” of Wanganui: “the council will remain the Wanganui District Council and most locals will carry on as if nothing has changed” (Laws in New Zealand Herald 2009); and (3) From those supporting the inclusive and bicultural identities advanced, in perhaps a limited way, by the Minister: “Whatever the outcome. It will be what will be. Pakeha and Maori will continue to call it Wanganui, whilst Maori and Pakeha will acknowledge it as Whanganui” (0217).

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Te Runanga O Tupoho. 2009.New Zealand Geographic Board Pro- posal. http: //www.wanganui.govt.nz/News/WilsonReport_Sum- mary.pdf. TVNZ. 2009a. Laws accused of “bullying” school kids. http://tvnz.co. nz/ national-news/laws-accused-bullying-school-kids-2964298? page=0&pagesize=5. TVNZ. 2009b. Residents free to choose city’s spelling. http://tvnz.co.nz/ national-news/wanganui-whanganui-choice-3313977? page=19& pagesize=5. TVNZ3. 2009. Most New Zealanders against ‘h’ in Wanganui – poll. http://www.3news.co.nz/Most-New-Zealanders-against-h-in- Wanganui–-poll/tabid/421/articleID/123542/Default.aspx, 01 October 2010. Wakefield, E.J. 1845. Adventure in New Zealand. London: John Murray. Wanganui Directory. 2010. http://media.wanganuichronicle.co.nz/ nz_regionals/www_wanganuichronicle_co_nz/2010/02/Wanganui DirectoryLOWRES.pdf. Wanganui Collegiate School, 2010, http://www.collegiate school.nz/ our-school/wcs-story/our history. Wanganui District Council. 2009. Proposed name change: from Wan- ganui to Whanganui. http://www.wanganui.govt.nz/News/Submis- sion_NZGeographicBoard.pdf and http://www.wanganui.govt. nz/ News/WilsonReport_Summary.pdf. Wanganui Yellow Pages. 2010: http://yellow.co.nz/search/Wanganui/ wanganui-2.html. Wichtel, Diana. 2009. Taking the michael: What the “h” were you thinking, Mayor Laws? http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3619/ columnists/14000/taking_the_michael.html. Williams, Herbert W. 1917. A dictionary of the Maori language. 5th edition. Wellington: Marcus F Marks, Government Printer. Williams, W. L. 1871. A dictionary of the New Zealand language and a concise grammar; to which is added a selection of colloquial sentences. 3rd edition. London: Williams and Norgate. Williams, William. 1844. A dictionary of the New Zealand language and a concise grammar; to which are added a selection of colloquial sentences. Paihia (NZ): C M [Church Missionary] Society. Williamson, Maurice. 2009. Press release: Alternative names Wanga- nui or Whanganui to become official. 18 December 2009. http://

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www. beehive.govt.nz/release/alternative+names+wanganui+or+ whanganui+become+official.

Philip W Matthews 125A Marine Drive Sorrento Bay Lower Hutt New Zealand 5013 [email protected]

Summary: Wanganui and Whanganui: a clash of identities The issue of whether the name of a New Zealand city and district should be spelled “Wanganui” or “Whanganui” has been intermittently controversial over the last hundred years or so. In 2008, a newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, set up a forum “Should it be ‘Wanganui’ or ‘Whanganui’?” which, over the seventeen months from May 13 2008 to October 27 2009, received 1036 comments on the issue. The issue became more pressing when, in February 2009, a Maori organization made a submission to the New Zealand Geographic Board seeking a change in the name of a city and its district to “Whanganui”, a Maori word, while a counter submission was made in August 2009 by a local government authority, claiming that Wanganui was not a Maori but was an English word and hence should not be changed. This paper focuses on the ways in which a sample of 345 comments were positioned in relation to Wanganui and Whanganui and, more particularly, to the two identities, Maori and Pakeha, underlying the issue.

Résumé: Wanganui et Whanganui: un choc d’identités La question de savoir si le nom d’une ville et district de Nouvelle-Zélande devrait être graphié Wanganui ou Whanganui a de temps en temps fait l’ob- jet d’une controverse au cours des cent dernières années. En 2008, le journal New Zealand Herald a mis en place un forum « Doit-ce être Wanganui ou Whanganui? » qui, du 13 mai 2008 au 27 octobre 2009, a reçu 1.036 commentaires. La question est devenue plus pressante quand, en février 2009, une organisation maori a soumis au New Zealand Geographic Board une requête pour changer le nom de la ville et de son district en Whanganui, mot maori, tandis qu’une autorité gouvernementale locale fournissait une requête contraire en août 2009, affirmant que Wanganui n’était pas maori mais anglais et ne devait donc pas être modifié. Cet article est centré sur le positionnement de 345 commentaires en relation avec Wanganui et Whanganui et, plus par- ticulièrement avec les deux identités, maori et pakeha, qui sous-tendent la question.

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Zusammenfassung: Wanganui und Whanganui: ein Streit zweier Identi- täten Die Frage, ob der Name des neuseeländischen Orts und Distrikts „Wanganui“ oder „Whanganui“ geschrieben werden soll, ist während der letzten hundert Jahre immer wieder kontrovers diskutiert worden. Im Jahr 2008 richtete eine Zeitung, der New Zealand Herald, ein Forum “Should it be ‘Wanganui’ or ‘Whanganui’?” ein, das, über einen Zeitraum von siebzehn Monaten, vom 13. Mai 2008 bis zum 27. Oktober 2009, 1036 Zuschriften zu diesem Thema erhielt. Das Problem erschien dringlicher, als im Februar 2009 eine Maori- Organisation dem New Zealand Geographic Board einen Vorschlag einreichte, den Namen der Stadt und ihres Bezirks in „Whanganui“ zu ändern, einem Maori-Wort, während in einem Gegenvorschlag eine lokale Regierungs- behörde im August 2009 Wanganui nicht als Maori- sondern als englisches Wort betrachtete und sich daher gegen eine Änderung aussprach. Dieser Bei- trag konzentriert sich auf die Art und Weise, wie eine Auswahl von 345 Wort- meldungen in jeweiligem Bezug zu Wanganui und Whanganui positioniert wurde, sowie auf die beiden ethnischen Identitäten Maori and Pakeha, die diesem Streitfall zugrunde lagen.

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