Hamilton street names potential signposts to the past

Wednesday, 16 February 2022

They’re crucial in helping people navigate their urban surrounds and in ensuring mail finds its way to its rightful receiver.

But street names can also play an important role in celebrating the history and heritage of places.

Adopting names which acknowledge te reo Māori and the history of Hamilton-Kirikiriroa was a key theme as city politicians met on Wednesday to listen to public feedback on how it should name new streets.

Hamilton City Council is proposing changes to its naming policy to ensure names of new streets, parks and council facilities better celebrate te reo Māori. The council also want to give mana whenua more time to consider and influence the names of new roads.

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Since 2016, more than a third of new city streets have received a te reo Māori name. City-wide, about 10 per cent of street names are in te reo.

The council received 239 submissions on its naming policy, with 54 per cent of submitters favouring no changes to the document. Concerns around the pronunciation of te reo Māori was highlighted by several submitters.

Monuments and street names have become a fertile area of debate in Hamilton in recent years with growing calls for the city to revisit street names honouring colonial figures such as Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky, Sir George Grey and John Bryce.

In 2020, the city council removed a life-sized bronze statue of Captain Hamilton from public display following threats by Tainui kaumātua Taitimu Maipi to tear it down.

Speakers at Wednesday’s hearings and engagement committee meeting highlighted the positives that can be achieved by adopting names which better reflect the history and significance of different parts of the city.

Ngāti Wairere historian Wiremu Puke​ said the iwi want to revive ancestral names not widely known today. Every geographical feature on its lands was once given a name.

“We’ve got well over 500 ancestral names in our archives that we’d like to revive over a period of time,” Puke said, adding the descendants of those whose lands were confiscated in 1863 should be involved in the naming process.

Puke also suggested a geographical map or blueprint be created, identifying different features across the city.

“But we do need council help to do that because many of our creeks are actually piped. Finding those particular features again gives us a better indication of how to revive those names,” he said.

Proposed changes to the council’s naming policy would put an expectation on developers to consult with mana whenua much earlier about proposed names. Developers could then put forward three names for council to consider, with at least one name provided by mana whenua.

In its written submission, Waikato-Tainui said names provided by mana whenua are taonga.

“Therefore, the names provided are a gift and not merely a suggestion,” the tribe said.

Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate​ is interested in the possible creation of a database of historic names that developers could “dip into and use” and notes te reo Māori is being used more in newer areas of the city.

“It’s a good sign, it shows, in fact, developers are already …embracing the ability to tell stories through their place names,” she said.

Councillor Martin Gallagher said Hamilton is located in an area with 300 – 400 years of human habitation. The intent of the council’s policy should be to capture the “totality of our human history”.

Councillors will deliberate on the proposed policy changes on March 3.