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Since the White Island tragedy, you might have noticed that it’s now been renamed by media and others as Whakaari / White Island. This most likely also hasn’t escaped the attention of Karl du Fresne, who writes about the stealth attempts by the media to change New Zealand to Aotearoa.
It can’t have escaped anyone’s attention that for years a determined campaign has been under way to rename New Zealand.
It’s being driven by activists, bureaucrats, teachers, academics, politicians and people in the media who think “New Zealand” is too Eurocentric and insufficiently reflective of the biculturalism that supposedly defines us as a country.
[…]Radio New Zealand was an early adopter and remains in the front line of the push for change, as it is with usage of the M?ori language generally.
Aotearoa is frequently used by RNZ journalists and presenters in preference to New Zealand, and lately the same trend has been creeping into the print media.
In defence of the practice, it can at least be argued that every New Zealander knows what Aotearoa means.
But some RNZ journalists go a whole lot further – for example, by referring to Christchurch as ?tautahi and Auckland as T?maki Makaurau.
That’s overstepping the mark. It’s arrogant and elitist, and shows contempt for listeners because it leaves them to guess what place the reporter is talking about.
The intention, clearly, is to encourage people to adopt these names in everyday usage.
Actually it’s much more than that, as I’ll explain.
[…]This is not to say there isn’t a good case for a public debate about the adoption of MAori place names.
But let’s be transparent about it, and follow democratic process rather than having change imposed through indoctrination.
[…]There’s no reason why the Aotearoa-New Zealand issue couldn’t eventually be decided by referendum – New Zealanders have shown they are not averse to the adoption of Maori place names.
There is no way the sort of people behind the push to rename New Zealand place names would allow that.
But let’s do it the proper way, through open, public debate and consensus rather than by stealth.
Getting back to Whakaari / White Island, this is ghoulish opportunism with a bit of virtue signalling thrown in. But let’s be clear about one thing. This is not about language. Sure, there are those who say Whakaari / White Island because they want to show that they care about the Maori language but these people are what you call “useful idiots.”
For the people who are pushing the change to Maori place names it goes back to the Treaty of Waitangi. These people believe that the TOW created a partnership agreement between Maori and the Crown where Maori have an overseeing role and “whitey” basically takes care of everyday business (and yes, I’ve known some of these people personally and this is what they believe).
For these people (who are obviously usually sickly white liberals), using the Maori name instead of the European name means acting in compliance with being in partnership with Maori.
And that, in a nutshell, is the real reason why you’re seeing and hearing Whakaari / White Island instead of just White Island.
