The Chatham Islands

Rekohu, Wharekauri, the Cornwallis Islands, or the Chatham Islands. They’re all one and the same, with the only difference being your perspective on them, or how much respect you can afford to accord one group over another.

Maybe an honest thing to do would be to refer to them in the order to which they were settled.

• Rekohu
• Chathams
• Wharekauri

Elsewhere, on the mainland of NZ, it has become very pc to revert to the traditional names of sites or places, or landmarks of significance, such as the odd mountain, lake or river.
Here on Rekohu, it is not that straight forward and there would be a major stumbling block if anyone were to suggest for example, that the name of the main town revert to Waiteki, or that we delete all reference to Port Hutt and it be now (re) known as Whangaroa, or that Pitt Island be offically shown on Charts as Rangiaotea, (or the European pronunciation of this as “Rangihaute” ) as it was in 1838, rather than the more recent acquisition and subsequent bestowal of the te reo “Rangiauria”.

Surely there is an answer. What have councils, both regional and local, done in areas where Iwi interestes overlap? Surely, there have been historical disputes over titles. If so what has worked. The crown has previously managed quite successfully to rename a mountain or two, without much opposition or resistance to the act, and has received general acceptance as well, in fact many would not even know where Egmont is these days. It is still there……… isnt it?

What about Aoraki…………… We know that it got shorter, because that was big news, but what did it used to be called……..? Well OK, that example hasnt been as successful as the Mt Taranaki one, but it still shows how it can work.

Renaming a place can be as simple as individuals introducing the new name into local dialect and it doesnt take very long for this to become customary usage, which is all thats needed to begin the process of forcing councils to make alterations.

What about reverting to the original Ouwenga from Owenga, (different words: different meanings)

Perhaps someone could tell me how many Moriori names that they can identify on a map or a chart of these islands?

I would wager (but I’m too tight to) that there isnt very many. In fact, I bet that less than 10% of all of the  place names on the average Chatham Island map are Moriori in origin.

Prove me wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!