it is something

Good news that four important features up North have been renamed with their Māori names. This is part of the treaty settlement for Ngāti Manuhiri. I really believe in renaming features because it is a way to bring people and communities together in shared history and knowledge. Renaming strengthens mana whenua and is an expression of rangatiratanga.


Stuff

Although the English names can still be used, the features will be official known in Maori as Te Hauturu-o-Toi (resting place of the wind) for Little Barrier, Paepae-o-Tu for Bream Tail, Te Hawere-a-Maki for Goat Island and Te Kohuroa (many mists) for Mathesons Bay.

Beautiful, evocative names connecting the past and the future - I hope everyone used them.

In the settlement, the Crown acknowledges that in purchasing Mahurangi and Omaha in 1841, they breached the Treaty of Waitangi, signed the year earlier. They also accept that the Crown showed "blatant disregard" for the people living on Te Hauturu/Little Barrier and forcibly evicted them in 1896. "The Crown profoundly regrets its breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles which left Ngati Manuhiri with few landholdings by 1865," the settlement says.

Renaming features was part of the $2.5 million settlement.

Not much is it, for the deprivations suffered. But it is something and it can be built upon for the good of the people and mana of Ngāti Manuhiri.