New Zealand could soon change its name

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After a fierce campaign, Te Pati Maori, Political party Which represents the Polynesians indigenous to New Zealand, collected 70,000 signatures As part of a petition to change the country’s name to “Aotearoa” (“New Zealand” in Māori).

That figure would be enough to force Parliament to reconsider the proposed change, first passed in 2021, Quartz explains. The party has also called for all original Māori city names to be restored by 2026.

Changing New Zealand’s name would have positive consequences for the country’s national identity, argues Te Pati Māori co-leader Debbie Ngariwa Packer, In a recent interview awarded to NPR. “It will be a source of great pride for generations to comeAnd She continues. We must strive to preserve our culture, our language and our well-being.”

In recent years, the party has attempted to reintroduce the Māori language in a number of ways. In 2018, the country’s waste management department set up multilingual recycling bins in some cities; In 2020, the Geographical Commission of New Zealand (Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa), which is responsible for place naming, approved the addition of approximately 400 Maori names in the territory. It was also decided to correct misspelled Maori names and introduce signs diacritics to make their pronunciation easier.

Draw a line under the colonial past

In the mid-1980s, New Zealand became a British colony. Dutch explorer Abd Tasman is said to be the first Westerner to set foot on a South Pacific island. In 1642, he named the island Statenlandt (“Land of the States”, in Dutch). Subsequently, Dutch cartographers renamed it “Nova Zeelandia”, referring to the region of Zeeland to the west of the Netherlands.

This is not the first time New Zealanders have tried to shake off the remnants of colonialism. In 2015, the government launched a public design competition to find an alternative to the flag of the state, which features the Union Hat – a standard imposed by the United Kingdom on its colonies and territories. After a referendum that cost $17 million (a similar amount in euros), New Zealanders finally chose to preserve the status quo.

The proposed law on changing the name of the island caused a sensation. Debbie Ngariwa Packer says she hopes to find support from the country’s youth. “I have good hope, she told NPR. Our country is the last to be colonized, it is time to move beyond what many other colonies went through before us and reclaim our national identity.