New Zealand Maori Indigenous Party leaders have begun collecting signatures for a petition demanding the country be renamed Aotearoa. It is reported by radio RNZ.
Politicians also demanded that all cities be given Maori names by 2026. Party co-chairs Raviri Waititi and Debbie Ngareva-Packer said that the country's authorities ignore and distort the original place names. “Already in the past, the Maori language received the status of the first and official language in this country. We are a Polynesian country, we are Aotearoa, ”said Waititi.
According to Ngarewa-Packer, the change from traditional names to English during the colonial era led to a decrease in the prevalence of the Maori language among the indigenous people of New Zealand. “In just 40 years, the colonialists were able to successfully deprive us of our language. And we still feel the impact of this today, ”the politician concluded.
At the same time, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern did not support the proposal of the Maori representatives. As an alternative, she suggested using Maori place names as additional, interchangeable ones. According to the politician, they plan to expand this practice in the future.
On May 12, it was reported that Waititi was angry with other politicians at a parliamentary meeting and expressed this in the traditional Maori way: he sang and performed movements from a ritual haka dance. After that he was asked to leave the hall. The politician got angry during the discussion of the project of preferential health care for the indigenous population.
