Kairangi Name Proposals go to Public Consultation

Two Wellington features may get dual Māori / English names, and one its Māori name restored, following consideration yesterday by the New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa.

Miramar Peninsula is proposed to be renamed Te Motu Kairangi / Miramar Peninsula; Hutt River is proposed to be renamed Te Awa Kairangi / Hutt River, while an unnamed ridge from Mount Crawford to Seatoun Heights is proposed to be named Te Whetū Kairangi Ridge.

Dual naming means the two names, in Māori and English, must be used together in official documents. Either name can be used in everyday speech.

Dr Don Grant, Chairman of the Board, said the Board acknowledged that the three Māori names are the original names given to the features by the earliest settlers in the area, the Ngāi Tara iwi of the Kurahaupo waka.

"The Board decided it was timely and appropriate to restore the set of original Māori names of these three features,” Dr Grant said. “Assigning dual names to two of the features recognises that place names have equal and special significance to both Māori and non-Māori."

The Board has a statutory function to collect original Māori place names and encourage their use.

The current Miramar Peninsula was an island at the time of the Ngāi Tara settlement, and was known as Te Motu Kairangi. Te Motu Kairangi was the largest of three islands in the harbour of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, officially 'Wellington Harbour (Port Nicholson)'. The other two islands being Matiu / Somes Island and Mākaro / Ward Island.

A channel, Te Awa-a-Taia, separated Te Motu Kairangi from the mainland. The channel was closed by an earthquake around 1460. When the original island became a peninsula, its first name fell into disuse. The peninsula took its current name, Miramar – ‘behold the sea’ in Spanish – in the mid-1800s.

Te Awa Kairangi, which means precious or esteemed river, was renamed Heretaunga River by Ngāti Kahungunu, then Te Wai o Orotu by Ngāti Mamoe, and more recently Hutt River, after British MP and one-time chairman of the New Zealand Company, Sir William Hutt.

Te Whetū Kairangi was the famous pa of Ngāi Tara situated on the ridge (between Mount Crawford and Seatoun Heights) above Te Puna a Tara (at Worser Bay). Te Whetū Kairangi was so named because with no other dwellers, they had only the stars in the evening sky to gaze at and on the beach after dark, the fires atop the pa created the illusion of stars.

Dr Grant said the intention is not to rename the suburb Seatoun Heights, but to restore the original Māori name to the ridge, which is currently unnamed.

The three naming proposals, which were approved by the Board at its meeting yesterday, will be opened for public submission in late August or early September, for three months.

Final determination will be made by the Board or the Minister for Land Information, depending on the consideration of submissions received.