Move will remember historic p¯a
Ma¯ ori forced out of the Hutt Valley during European settlement are on track to be acknowledged in new street names.
Following a Hutt City Council regulatory committee meeting on Tuesday, acting chairman councillor Andy Mitchell was confident a move to name new streets after pa¯ belonging to Nga¯ti Tama and Nga¯ti Rangatahi would be accepted.
It was important to acknowledge all aspects of the area’s history.
‘‘They were expelled from the Hutt Valley at gunpoint,’’ he said. ‘‘Acknowledging them tells a fuller story of our city. We have two iwi that aren’t here any more to tell their story, so I think it’s important to recognise them.’’
Both Nga¯ti Tama and Nga¯ti Rangatahi were ousted from the valley in the 1840s by the colonial government to make way for settlers.
Nga¯ ti Tama built and occupied the Maraenuku pa¯ in Boulcott and Nga¯ ti Rangatahi’s Motutawa pa¯ was in Avalon. The pa¯ sites are in the immediate vicinity of where the new streets have been constructed.
Should the names be accepted, the accessways will have the prefix ‘‘Te Ara o’’, meaning ‘‘The Path of’’.
Mitchell said there was a council convention that required street names to recognise events and people who contributed to the city, however, recent examples had not always lived up to that expectation.
‘‘Street and place names have a really strong storytelling potential. They are here forever.’’
Nga¯ti Tama and Nga¯ti
Rangatahi were invited to comment but had not replied at the time of publishing.
Other proposed street names would celebrate early Dutch settler Willem van Baarle and soldier Eruera Te Whiti o Rongomai Love, from Petone.
Love was the first person of Ma¯ ori heritage to command the 28th Ma¯ori Battalion in World War II. He was killed in action in 1942 in the Western Desert.
Mitchell said there had been a lot of support for the names from the community and from around the council table.
He was confident they would be accepted at the next council meeting on May 26.