Kirikiriroa v Hamilton
MAYOR WANTS COUNCIL NAME CHANGE
Hamilton City Council might be getting a new name.
Mayor Andrew King is testing the waters with Kirikiriroa City Council – a name he said reflects stronger links with iwi.
King’s fellow councillors say the idea came out of left field but a local hapu¯ spokesman sees it as a chance to re-examine Hamilton’s identity. Councillors will decide if the possible name change goes any further at a council meeting on Thursday, with a vote on whether staff should look into what’s involved in making the change.
It’s not the first time the city council has tried tweaking a local moniker. When it proposed Hamilton turn into Waikato City at the dawn of the new millennium, the response from ratepayers was a resounding no.
The current Hamilton City Council logo has Kirikiriroa under it in small print, King said.
‘‘What I’m looking at is moving the ‘Kirikiriroa’ into a place of prominence.
‘‘I’m trying to promote closer relationships with iwi and I think this is sending a strong signal.’’
It isn’t a bid to change Hamilton’s name, King said, and he’s not asking councillors to decide on a name change just yet.
‘‘At this stage, I’m just asking staff to have a look at it, to identify the process and what path we would go down.’’
The change wouldn’t happen fast even if the idea got support, King said.
Councillors will make up their own minds in the vote on whether staff should do a report, King said.
But his view is that council needs to move now if councillors want to get the change through before their term ends.
Hamilton’s currently named after a man who never set foot here, Nga¯ti Wairere spokesman Wiremu Puke said.
‘‘Captain Hamilton never came here … The city was actually named after a military officer who was killed in Tauranga.’’
Early Pa¯keha¯ settlers would have known the Hamilton area as Kirikiriroa, Puke said.
Members of his hapu¯ are guardians of the name, which means long stretch of gravel – given because the gravel supported fertile gardens on the riverside.
It applied to Kirikiriroa Pa, between London and Bryce streets, and Puke’s late father gave his blessing for it to become the name of the urban marae on Wairere Drive. It might be hard to change 150 years of using the name Hamilton, Puke said, but thought it could be a chance to re-examine Hamilton’s identity and recognise history.
But the name-change suggestion stunned several of King’s colleagues.
‘‘If you look up on the roof, you’ll see most of the [elected] members’ eyebrows,’’ councillor Mark Bunting said. ‘‘It’s probably well intended but, I’m thinking at a time when we’re asking people for massive increases in their rates, I just don’t think it’s the time to be running around getting reports on impulsive ideas.’’
The idea could be worth looking at down the track, he said.
Cr Geoff Taylor had no idea this was coming, and said it wasn’t a priority when council was in the middle of a long-term plan.
Taylor is sceptical about council name changes in general, he said, because they seem to be big, costly processes which don’t change much for ratepayers.
‘‘[The Kirikiriroa suggestion] is just so random, to be honest,’’ he said. ‘‘I would hate for Ma¯ori people to take that as an insult or anything, but it’s just so left-field and random. I know nothing about it. I don’t really know [King’s] reasoning behind it, apart from he said he had a conversation with the King [Tu¯heitia].’’
Cr Siggi Henry would have liked to discuss the idea at a briefing, but had found out through another councillor just before she was contacted for comment.
Henry saw the name change as a lovely thought, but said council already had a lot of important issues on the go.