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I agree with Chris Trotter

I know, it's pretty unbelievable. You just have to look at our Chris Trotter post tag to understand the magnitude of my statement. But there you go, today I actually agree with the man.

Chris Trotter has written an opinion piece in today's Dominion Post that discusses the concept of wiping out history by changing the names of places. He admits at the beginning that he is a racist, and it seems his racism has to do with a preference for the gradual evolution of names of places that has to do with the people that actually lived there rather than a wholesale renaming to placate those among us who would make New Zealand a Maori country. Never mind that it was basically built by Europeans and before they came, it was a dog eat dog world.
For a start, I am more than a little disturbed to learn that the Geographic Board is legally obliged to replace English with Maori place-names wherever possible.

This suggests to me that the New Zealand state will not be content until all evidence of its colonial history has been, quite literally, wiped off the map.

WHO IS responsible for this extraordinary policy? Did anyone seek the endorsement of the New Zealand electorate before embarking on what can only be called a campaign of historical ethnic cleansing?

Are the achievements of our pioneering ancestors worth so little that all trace of their presence and contribution is to be expunged?
All worthy questions. This whole train of thought seems to have started for Chris as he contemplated the battle over the spelling of Wanganui. The whole article deserves reading.

Related Link : The magical potency of names ~ Dominion Post, Stuff

Comments

  1. You need to keep in mind that Trotter still has a sense of righteous outrage because the maori party went with national. Hell hath no fury like a fat left wing dinosaur scorned.

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  2. And yet again I am happy to say I disagree with Chris Trotter. His comments highlighted in the post are indicative of the unreasonable exaggerated rant we have come to expect of him. Talk about extreme views...CT never fails to disappoint.

    Barnsley Bill - good call.

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  3. Now to address the issue at hand. I am not well versed on the Wanganui debate, having only picked up on tidbits in the news, but if I understand rightly, they are not looking to change from a colonial name to a Maori name, but to actually get the Maori name right..? If so, what is wrong with this? The cost in changing a few letterheads? Why not get it right?

    As for updating colonial names with the original Maori names in other places, again I can't see the big deal with this. I would prefer there to be some genuine meaning behind a place name rather than the so often naming a place after some town in England. Why? Well we are not England, that's why!

    I agree that we should retain European placenames where there is a genuine purpose behind it. Cornwall Park in Auckland comes to mind. Sir John Logan gifted the land to the people of NZ and asked for it to be called Cornwall Park after the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary of England). It was his land (hopefully legally) so therefore his call.

    But if the new settlers from yesteryear couldn't come up with a good reason to name a place, so they used a place from the old country as a substitute then let's be rid of such emptiness. As the NZ Herald pointed out in its recent editorial about the renaming of some of Auckland boroughs in the supercity proposal: "Who is Rodney?"

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  4. "Who is Rodney" is a very interesting question.

    Presumably it was named for a reason. Do we only rename places whose history we cannot be bothered remembering? Will there be a competition to say one memory can supplant another?

    Does Wanganui now have sufficient history behind it to earn it's right to existence?

    Is 'Wanganui' as a word representative of the synthesis of Maori and Pakeha, and in itself provides new meaning?

    I think this debate could get bigger, especially as two cultures are involved.

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