The survey pegs of the past

The content and meaning of place names enrich our lives and bring meaning and identity to our geography.

For Tā Tipene O’Regan, place names are a rich and fascinating resource – the survey pegs of the past that say much about where Ngāi Tahu has come from. He believes we will all pronounce Māori names better if we know what they mean, where they have come from and something of the stories behind them. To that end, he visited Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu during Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori to talk to staff about the linguistic links to our past.

He began by referencing the Pacific.
“The bulk of our Māori names are Hawaiiki names. They were brought to New Zealand by the first settlers and even today, they remind us of our origins.”

“Traditionally our people tend to forget where our names come from and over time, they start creating new versions of the old names; but we have a lot of ancient place names in New Zealand that have connections throughout the Pacific. That provides us with a fascinating insight into our past,” he said.

Many Māori place names are also descriptive of the terrain, of the food resources available for harvest. Others speak of the early journeys that Māori embarked upon throughout New Zealand. A lot of our southern tīpuna names for instance are named after places that were passed through on the iwi migratory journeys south – “a lot of our taua for instance, are named after places in the Wairarapa – why?” asks Tā Tipene.

“That’s one of the lovely mysteries about names.”

Much of the richness of names lies in the fact that they harbor traditions and history. They link us to our past. “The names travelled with the first settlers and with our tīpuna as they relocated to new places. They carried that history, they brought the myths and the stories with them and they endure today. Those stories have always fascinated me,” said Tā Tipene.

“We have all sorts of knowledge in our own Ngāi Tahu records that we don’t even know we have. They’re the clues to our history.”

Māori place names, said Tā Tipene, are a characteristic of identity. They give us the links to who we are and where we come from. They are a part of the vehicle, the hooks, that velcro to which our history and tradition sticks. And he is excited that we now have the capacity to restore some of our old names and reintroduce our history into unnamed features of the land.

“That’s an important capacity to have,” he concluded.