Did anyone notice the irony of new Tourism Minister Stuart Nash speaking at Summit Aotearoa saying " ‘Brand New Zealand’ is paramount"?
The government and the public service are determinedly moving to Aotearoa as the name of this country.
But the world they want to court knows it as New Zealand.
A government running with the hares and hunting with the hounds...
1 comment:
Aotearoa a European hoax
We are talking here about the name Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud.
It is being promoted, and not for the first time, as a replacement for the old-fashioned, misspelt moniker New Zealand, which, in the eyes of the politically correct, reeks of the Dutch, clogs, windmills and European colonialists in general.
The majority of New Zealanders, including most Maori, have been through an education process which has convinced them that the original Maori name for the country was Aotearoa, and that this was arbitrarily replaced by European invaders.
Strenuous attempts have been made to try to link Aotearoa to pre-European usage.Frankly, it is all bollocks.
Historian Michael King exposed the myth once and for all when he pointed out that Aotearoa was selected and popularised as a romantic Maori name for our islands by Pakeha writers such as William Pember Reeves and Stephenson Percy Smith, as well as the Education Department's School Journal.
With propaganda like the school journal (catch the little darlings when they are young and they are yours for life), the theory flourished till it became an established fact.
It is now politically incorrect to raise a questioning voice.
The problem is that early Maori were a collection of tribes, not a nation. There was no postal system or communication with the outside world, no diplomatic missions, so there was no need for a collective name for this archipelago and its inhabitants.
.
The widespread use of Aotearoa followed the arrival of the Europeans. But up till the 20th century the name applied to the North Island only (or parts of the North Island).
Maori generally adopted the name Niu Tireni, a transliteration of New Zealand. Various sources cite Te Ika a Maui (the fish of Maui) as a widely used name for the North Island.
The South Island was Te Wai Pounamu (the waters of greenstone) or Te Wahi Pounamu (the place of greenstone).
Post a Comment