Why I support name adjustment to ‘Te Kamo’
I wish to respond to GM Tinker’s comments in Northern Advocate Letters to the Editor (April 15).
I affirm I am mana i te whenua in Te Kamo through my mother Lissa Davies and her whakapapa to Te Kahu o Torongare. We are descendants of Pomare Kingi. Our whenua and ka¯ inga where my mother resides is Ngararatunua.
While I may be employed by Nga¯ ti Hine Forestry Trust. My support of the name adjustment from ‘Kamo’ to ‘Te Kamo’ is via my lineage and connection to the whenua that the village sits.
Please accept this email as an articulation of my whakapapa and relationship to Te Kamo and the tribe of Te Kahu o Torongare. Huhana Lyndon
Whanga¯ rei
Preconceived views
I would like to respond to GM Tinker’s letter of Thursday, April 15.
WOW, any resistance to this humble request for a name correction will be seen as recognition that colonisation did occur in the past and it hasn’t stopped.
GM Tinker alludes to “a few thousand Pakeha living in and around Kamo who would be quite happy for Ms Lyndon and co to quit this unnecessary, unedifying posturing”.
I suggest that anyone who resists the correction is pretending colonisation did not happen.
The constant is the Crown’s interpretation of what the Treaty of Waitangi meant. The Crown has a duty of care to recognise those who were here pre-colonisation.
I expect GM Tinker to continue to default to their comfortable “white space”.
However, please do that without attachment to any more preconceived views about Ms Lyndon’s bibliography or tribal affiliations.
Veronica Turketo
Kensington
Where will it go
The huge question now, is where is the helicopter going to be relocated so that it does not display any noise factor for any residents who go to live there. The present location is central, there is open space and visibility and the ambulance station provides a base for the crew. I do not see a problem! It will have maybe move into an industrial area?? Where in Whangarei is there such a venue?
Once again we have a system and service that has worked well for decades and the ‘tall poppy’ syndrome wants to remove it and at an enormous cost to rate payers. Perhaps Top Energy could fund at least half of that cost if and when it happens. Will we need to move the airport and the rail line as well so that people who live beside them can get a good night’s sleep. Those sick patients forced to stay at the hospital have to grin and bear the noise as well.
It is not bullying but a small, wealthy minority who will always believe that they have rights over the rest of us. What about the Right to fast transportation for those in need of emergency medical and surgical care.
Who is looking after the majority rights of the recipients of the 1115 helicopter callouts in 2020. And that would have been a relatively quiet year with Covid lockdown and less traffic crashes, sea rescues etc.
Just consider how lucky we are to have such a service. Every time I hear the helicopter heading north above us, I say a prayer of thanks to the brave experienced crew who fly it. Think of others and be kind.