What's in a name? Te Ao Māori digital producer Mariana Whareaitu takes a look at the stories behind some government agencies' names to find out.
Government departments with dual Māori-English names are being told to lead with their English title first. It's a controversial move that, along with a raft of other policies, has attracted strong criticism over the Government's intention towards Māori. But the Government insists the name policy is to help people navigate the services agencies provide.
It's not the first time a government agency's Māori name has been questioned — there were once calls for Oranga Tamariki ("well-being of children") to change its name following an investigation into the harrowing way a newborn baby was uplifted from their whānau.
But regardless of which side of the fence people sit on, there are interesting stories behind some of these organisations' names.
Many of the names were gifted, some are literal translations of their English department title, while others reflect the service provided by the agency, its aspiration, and the people or environment they serve.
Names with strong aspiration
Waka Kotahi (New Zealand Transport Agency)
Waka means "vehicle" or "vessel" and kotahi means "one", but a literal Vessel One, or One Vessel translation doesn't quite express the essence of the name or the organisation.
Instead, the department's website explains that the Māori name "conveys the concept of 'travelling together as one' and embraces integration, affordability, safety, responsiveness and sustainability".
Kāinga Ora (Home and Communities)
Simply, kāinga is "home" or "house" and ora is "life", "health", "alive" and all those kinds of associated words.
Kāinga Ora's website says their name means well-being through places and communities.
Whaikaha (Ministry of Disabled People)
The name of this ministry means "to have strength, to have ability, to be otherly abled, and to be enabled".
According to their website the identity of Mana Whaikaha was co-designed with a group of disabled people and their families, including some who identified as Māori.
Founding member of the Māori Disability Leadership group, Maaka Tibble, said the name aligns with the goals and aims of people with disabilities determined to do well "and create opportunities for themselves as opposed to being labelled, as in the past".
Whaikaha was published as part of an initiative, Te Reo Hāpai, to translate words that might carry stigma and discrimination into words that recognise humanity, hope and personal dignity.
Names which are conceptually aligned
Toitū Te Whenua (Land Information New Zealand)
Toitū Te Whenua comes from a well-known Māori proverb: 'Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua'. Translated into English, it means "People come and go but the land remains".
The organisation says it serves as a reminder that the land and our responsibility to care for it is enduring.
Te Taura Whiri i Te Reo Māori (Māori Language Commission)
The commission's first official name was a literal translation of Māori Language Commission – Te Komihana mō te Reo Māori. The board's first action was to replace it with its current name, Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, which translates to "the rope that binds the language".
Founding board chairman Sir Kingi Ihaka said this was because the rope that binds us all together is our language; a rope that is woven by each tribe and each person to be strong forever.
Names inspired by gods and great feats
Ngāti Tūmatauenga (New Zealand Army)
The army is its own iwi — the tribe of Tūmatauenga, the god of war.
It's said that back in the '90s, a request was made at the annual meeting of the 28th Māori Battalion for an army marae to be built and for the New Zealand Army to be "transformed" into an iwi.
Those in attendance are said to have agreed to both requests and worked alongside the army to send messages to other iwi across Aotearoa.
Māori Queen Dame Te Atairangikaahu gave her assent, as did iwi surrounding the army base in Waiouru, and so Ngāti Tūmatauenga was born.
Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand) and Te Aka Whaiora (Māori Health Authority)
There's a fair bit of background to these two names that draws from Māori oral history.
They were developed in cohesion with each other and share the same origin founded in the legend of Tāwhaki. The group tasked with coming up with the names believed the two needed to go hand in hand to reflect the way they would work together to produce positive outcomes.
So who is Tāwhaki? In some histories, Tāwhaki ascended the skies in search of the three baskets of knowledge. There are multiple versions of this story, including one where Tāne, god of the forest, made the journey instead.
But the narrative goes that one piece of advice he was given in his search was to keep hold of the aka matua — the main vine he used to climb to the heavens — and avoid the weaker branches, or the aka taepa.
So, spoiler alert, he follows the advice and finds what he's looking for, but along with the baskets of knowledge, he collects two stones — or whatu — that are associated with them. (Obviously, there's more to the telling but that'll do for this purpose.)
So, the group landed on Te Whatu Ora for Health New Zealand, and because in Māori, names can have multiple interpretations, so too does this one.
'Whatu' might have originated from the Tāwhaki narrative, but the word also means 'to weave'. So coupled with 'ora', the name can translate to "the weaving of wellness", and refer to the coming together of "people, resources, organisations, thoughts and actions for the betterment and well-being of all".
Whatu also means eye, and this adds another layer for an organisation that went through a refresh with a future-focused vision.
"According to the expert advisory group who gifted it to us, there is a strong spiritual and practical foundation in the name Te Whatu Ora, which is easy to pronounce and remember, and also provides the opportunity to embrace a future-focused vision," Te Whatu Ora says on its website.
Te Aka Whai Ora refers to the main vine Tāwhaki was told to keep a hold of and the 'whai ora' can be translated to mean "in search of well-being".
Ara Poutama Aotearoa (Department of Corrections)
Ara Poutama refers to the pathway taken in search for the baskets of knowledge (as mentioned above) but by Tāne, rather than Tāwhaki.
It was the final pathway ascended by Tāne to retrieve the three baskets of knowledge.
If we break it down, "ara" is path, and "poutama" is a weaving pattern that looks like a set of steps leading upwards. It's associated with excellence or the ascension to excellence.
The department says the name is about empowering those in their care and management to change their lives and the lives of their whānau.
SHARE ME