Letters to the editor

Tu Tangata, Issue 29, 1 April 1986, Page 58

Letters to the editor

Nga tuhituhi

Kia Ora Dear Editor

I have just returned from a few days south. As we drove along I was looking at the place name signs and thought more Maori words on them could help to wake people up to the Maori langauge and the fact that it is part of New Zealand. “Above New Zealand I would write Aotearoa”. I saw names like Lake Rotoiti, Lake Rotorua. I thought they should just have Roto iti, Roto rua with Lake Little and Lake Two written underneath.

Where there is the name of a river it should read like this: Buller Awa, Buller River, Buller Piriti, Bridge and where there are creeks and streams Manga. Some place names could have both Maori and English, Waipera, Muddy water. Hoha Amberley and Mutu rakau for Woodland. Christchurch could have its Maori name also. I would also like to see some for sale notices “Whare-nui-pai”, “Riwai pou, Utu $3 kilo”. I am finding children are really interested in Maori. They really seem to be accepting it as a part of learning. A little 6 year old granddaughter was telling me words and counting and wanting me to tell her more, also two 9 years and 7 years in another family and a very keen 13 year old boy in another family.

Na. Ruth Pahi

Kia Ora Phillip,

In issue 28 Feb/March, an article about the Powhiri for the Greenpeace crew, I was very dissapointed to see that my father who was on board that ship was given the wrong name.

Couldn’t your reporters have taken the time and given him the deserved respect by making sure they had the right name? Who is Te Hemara?

My father’s name is Tihema Galvin also, why are the surnames dropped? You seem to have got the surnames right for Alain Mafort and Dominique Prier why are the names of the two Maori men in this article left unfinished maori men involved in the Peace Movement, and the two French murderers now serving prison sentences in Aotearoa given full respect?

Our names mean a lot to us our correct, full names, I suggest you take more care with this in future our Iwi, was very hurt over this slight to one of our Kaumatua.

Cathy Galvin Riley

Reply E te whanau, e te iwi. Taku aroha ki a koutou, naku te he. There is no excuse. The reason for mistakes is that Tu Tangata has no reporting staff and relies on contributions. Therefore there is not always the backup that other publications enjoy. Ed.

Editor, Tu Tangata Magazine

Enclosed is my cheque for a year’s subscription, it’s time I stopped borrowing copies from my friend, especially since I find it painful to give them back. I don’t really feel through with an issue after only one reading. Tu Tangata is simply wonderful: informative, well written and a visual pleasure. (And unlike other Pacific magazines I subscribe to and am very fond of, it has a sense of humour too.) (Abridged)

(Ms) Mel Kernahan Director, MK Pacific Ltd.

Dear Sir,

HavingTead your news magazine for some time may I express an opinion, the white indigenous N.Z.ers, should be careful in expressing ideas and opinions on the development of the Maori need to find their identity. Maori identity is a positive thing and attitude the same way as white N.Z.ers need to feel they have a home and to be proud of their accomplishments. The fact that there are no restrictions in law on inter marriage gives hope that in say 20 years time the whole subject could be of little interest.

A. P. Richardson

Dear Editor

Takawaenga Trust submissions came as an anti-climax at the end of a very interesting article by Robin Shave on Maori parliamentary representation in your December/January issue.

To increase the number of Maori seats and to introduce the “proportional representation single transferable vote method” of voting is not likely to set free the Maori voice from political domination. If all the candidates for Maori seats refused to stand as repre-

sentatives of pakeha dominated political parties, we might get somewhere; not otherwise.

Ted Stewart

The following letters relate to the naming of the King Country, and feature correspondence between Tahana Wahanui and Te Waa and Ihaka WaitaraAmos.

At issue is the differing accounts of the naming of Te Rohe Potae. Tahana Wahanui’s explanation was published in the Waikato Times and the Waitomo News.