Who we define ourselves to be as Kiwis has become a matter of debate in our country. Culturally polarising proposals for national and local place-naming are creating unhealthy tensions in this issue.

We believe that, for lasting social cohesion and harmony, the principle of equality must prevail through the equal weighting of Māori, Moriori and Pākehā cultures in our official languages, in our country’s name and in its regional and local place-names. No one of these cultures should take precedence over the others.

In the interests of equality, our petition promotes the right of Moriori (first people of Rēkohu Chatham Islands Wharekauri) and English-speakers to have our two languages formalised as official languages of this country. Currently, only te reo Māori and sign language have official status.

As for place names, each of these Kiwi cultures should have control over its preferred names and has the right to determine where names should be applied. It need not be mandatory to co-name all places. 

We acknowledge that iwi differ over whether Aotearoa is the appropriate Māori name for our country. That is an issue only iwi can resolve.

In official use, national and local place-names should comply with the co-naming rules of the NZ Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa. That is, order of naming according to precedence of arrival in the place (for example, Te Waipounamu South Island; Rēkohu Chatham Islands Wharekauri).

Our proposal also promotes the right to refer informally to our country or a place by any part of its name (for example, Ōtepoti, or Dunedin), without fear of prejudice or recrimination.

By preserving the principle of cultural equality in these ways, our petition gives Kiwis a choice which avoids the ethnically divisive naming proposals of the Te Pāti Māori and NZ First petitions. Te Pāti Māori wishes to drop New Zealand as our country's name, replacing it with Aotearoa. NZ First wants the status quo (New Zealand and nothing else). 

 
We ask the New Zealand House of Representatives to

(1) make te rē Moriori and English official languages alongside te reo Māori and sign language;

(2) incorporate first peoples’ (Māori, Moriori) and Pākehā names in official references to the names of our country, its regions and its local places, each name having equal standing and applied to places where its sponsoring culture sees fit (if at all);

(3) protect the right to refer informally to our country or a place by whichever part of its name the user prefers. 

Euan Kennedy
Harvey C Perkins
Judith Miller
Bob Gidlow
Inger Perkins