WHAT'S in a name, I have heard asked many times.
And it has been asked a lot lately, with the naming of our new streets and subdivisions.
What Maori names can we use and why can't we use some names and not others?
For many Maori, if you want to use a name connected to a family then it is respectful to ask the elder of that family, because that name will usually carry a lot of whakapapa (lineage).
When our baby, Waiwhakaata, was born, we went straight from the maternity annex to the guardian of the name we both wanted for her.
And after gaining permission from her Koro Kereopa, we drove home and presented our baby to friends and whanau with the name that she was given the tautoko (blessing) to carry.
Family names carry a lot of history with them and over the weekend we had a whanau wananga to learn about the history of our great-great-grandfather, Emile Joseph Borell, and how he ended up here in Tauranga Moana from the tiny town of Touque in France.
We learned how Emile built a beautiful church at Rangiaowhi over in the Ngati Apakura area of Waikato.
And it was there that he would marry his bride, Roha Tangike, my great-great-grandmother on April 14, 1849.
As part of the wananga (history lesson) one of our whanau members told us the haunting story of her grandmother and the church at Rangiaowhia our great-great-grandfather had built with his mate, Louis Bidois.
She told us of her grandmother, who at 3 years of age was the only person to escape what can only be explained as a massacre.
When General Cameron (now there's a familiar name) was sent over to sort out the "natives" and confiscate all their lands he ran into some strong resistance from some of our Ngati Apakura whanau.
And in true Cameron military madness style, he gave the orders to wipe them out.
His troops herded all the local Maori up like cattle and locked them in the church, and then set it alight - killing all 144 inside.
Those who tried to escape were shot and only one 3-year-old girl got out, by being thrown through the burning back wall.
Most of us knew the church had been burned but not many had heard the tragic truth of what happened inside while it burnt.
The tearful tale, when told by the granddaughter, sent down a veil of deep sadness that settled across our wharenui and stayed with me while me and my puku climbed Mauao yesterday to remember the 90th anniversary of the peace monument built up on the summit to celebrate the end of World War 1.
On July 19, 1919, this monument was finished and huge fires of peace were lit on top of Mauao and at key sites in site of each other (Maketu, Matakana, Te Puna Point, Otawhiwhi and others) as a beacon of hope for peace.
There is no blame to be apportioned on anyone today for what happened 160 years ago or wars since and those who attempt to do so usually carry their own self-serving interests.
But the question being asked more and more is how can the main road of Tauranga be named to honour the general called Cameron who was responsible for this and many other massacres in our area?
Surely there must come a time of healing when these streets will be renamed to honour those who were massacred, and not those who committed the atrocities?
We cannot hide from history but we can learn from it and these truths need to be told in classrooms across the country so the next generations of street-namers will never make the same mistake again. And that brings me back to the madness of war and what can we mere mortals do about it.
Prayer in any form by any religious or non-religious believers is a good start, just ask my mate, Father Michael.
As is the building of peace monuments and the naming of streets to honour those who have fallen in war - and their families who carry that same name today.
Nor just our world war veterans but also for those who have fallen closer to home for the same reasons (land, ethnicity and religion).
Pai marire
broblack@xtra.co.nz
KAPAI'S CORNER: Let's not honour bloodstained name
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