It was declined due to the possibility of confusion for life-saving operations giving and receiving directions in emergency situations, as there is already a Ngaruroro River on the map (a new channelled offshoot of the original river).
The purpose of this application was to restore and revitalise a local history extinguished and to remove an ever-present reminder of colonisation.
The river name requested was due to a commonly known oral history story.
In a very brief summary, the canoe Tāitimu passed through Te Matau-a-Māui. On board was Ruawharo, a priest, a navigator who was guardian of the gods of earth and ocean. Ruawharo had a wife, Hine Wairakaia. They had three sons, Matiu, Mākaro and Mokotūāraro.
Ruawharo turned his three sons into rocks, mauri stones, and placed them in various places along the local coastal waters. The purpose of doing this was to extend and establish feeding grounds for whales and fish. He placed Matiu at Waikōkopu Harbour, Mākaro at Aropāoanui, and Mokotūāraro by the entrance of the Ngaruroro River on a reef called Rangatira. All three boys are still visible today, as kōhatu mauri.
At another time Mahu, another early explorer, and his dog were traversing a lowland river where fish known as upoko roro swim.
Depending on the stage in their life cycle, these fish are called pane roro, poko roro, and whitebait, amongst others. Its head, upoko, is transparent so you can see its brain, roro. Hence the name upoko roro - head brain.
While crossing the river, Mahu’s dog disturbed a shoal of whitebait, the movement of the fish causing the water to ripple, to ngaru. So Mahu called the river Ngaru roro. The application for the name Ngaruroro Mokotuararo ki Rangatira was based on this oral history.
However, that is not to say that this is the taketake name of origin, or indeed that there are not words to be added. That is entirely another complete wānanga on its own and is beyond my knowledge bank.
However, the action for this river name application is specific to a people and timespan relevant to a living interaction with the river giving us our oral history, with a place name.
And so we get to Hawke’s Bay, 1975. The year the river became the Clive River. Council flood control diversion works changed the original path of the river, its mauri, life force and then its name.
Let’s talk about Robert Clive, who has faced scathing reviews from many historians.
In India, Clive was an Indian Mughal, a British lord and Governor of the Presidency of Fort William. He was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency.
He overthrew Bengal rule to lay the foundation for British East India Company policy rule and trumped the French and Dutch in doing so.
Bengal was the richest state in India, which Britain wanted for its own economic base.
Under his rule was the Great Bengal and Bihar Famine of 1769-1770, which killed approximately 10 million Indians. Clive’s forces also carried out attacks on the local population using cannons, muskets and bayonets.
In the British Parliament of 1773, discussing his matters of achievement and business practices, Clive declared to the House of Parliament, “I stand astonished at my own moderation”.
Clive, 1st Baron of Plassey, was an unscrupulous foreign character to say the least.
Mokotūāraro, on the other hand, is a repository of oral local history, and very much a local character. Say no more.
* Te Hira Henderson is curator of Taonga Māori at MTG Hawke’s Bay.
