Zizi Sparks: New Zealand or Aotearoa? Why not change the name?

Maori Party co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi are leading the calls to rename New Zealand. Photo / File

OPINION

It seems the debate about renaming New Zealand comes up every Māori Language Week.

Should the country be called New Zealand, Aotearoa, or Aotearoa New Zealand?

Māori Party co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer launched a petition this week to rename it Aotearoa and to use te reo Māori names for all towns, cities and places by 2026.

In my view, we should rename the country and get the inevitable over and done with.

Renaming a country is not a new thing. Over the years many have been renamed.

Ceylon changed to Sri Lanka in the 1970s and Siam became Thailand in 1939.

Even as recently as 2019, the Dutch government decided to stop describing itself as Holland in favour of the Netherlands. At the time a spokeswoman for the ministry of foreign affairs told The Guardian the Netherlands needed a more uniform and co-ordinated national branding.

It has been done and it's time New Zealand does it.

The use of te reo has come a long way this century.

Māori a few generations ago were punished for speaking te reo and it was a dying language.

Now tamariki can go through their schooling speaking te reo and for some English is a second language.

Television and radio presenters are incorporating te reo into their programmes daily, people use it in conversation more.

A change from New Zealand to Aotearoa is a natural progression and seems an inevitable next step.

The name change is important but in my view there are other important issues affecting Māori that the Māori Party should focus on.

As of June last year, Māori and Pacific children were more likely to live in households with low-income or material hardship compared with European children, Māori are over-represented in health statistics with a lower life expectancy, higher mortality rates and unequal representation across almost all chronic and infectious diseases.

Not to mention the Covid-19 pandemic which has no end in sight.

If we did change the name, it would take a while to cotton on both here and overseas. I still refer to the Netherlands as Holland despite the rebranding two years ago.

People will still call Aotearoa New Zealand for years to come after the change and I'm sure they will call themselves New Zealanders rather than Aotearoans.

Let's change the name but not lose sight of other important issues.