Groups seek to stamp out North Waikato town’s name

Groups are trying to return a north Waikato town, reportedly named after a rubber stamp, back to its Ma¯ ori name.

A family of 5th generation scots living in the town wants the name change to restore pride in the beleaguered town, and a local iwi organisation agrees.

Dave and Fransiska Falconer, and their daughter Siska, have started an application to the New Zealand Geographic Board (NZGB) to have the name changed.

Huntly’s name was changed from Ra¯ hui Po¯ keka, after the first postmaster James

Henry arrived in town, information from Waikato’s Coalfield Museum shows.

Henry had a stamp from previous work he did in the Scottish village of Huntly which he started to use. He also bought a hotel in the area, naming it Huntly Lodge.

The story goes that either Henry himself, or his boss the Postmaster General, did not like Ra¯ hui Po¯ keka, so they called it Huntly, museum spokesperson Jean Beverland said.

Dave Falconer said he feels the naming ‘‘is a wrong we want to put right’’

‘‘The town had an existing name here, and they just put another name on it.’’

The Falconer family made a submission to Waikato District Council in 2005, and then in 2019, to have it changed.

Iwi social service provider Waahi

Whaanui trust support the Falconer’s application, chair Huirama Matatahi said.

Matatahi said the name Ra¯ hui Po¯ keka relates to the story of Te Putu, a prekı¯ngitanga chief.

Te Putu lived in the Taupiri area, and was a caretaker of the stretch of river and land from the fringes of Nga¯ ruawa¯ hia to Rangiriri.

Eel or tuna was the significant food source, and Te Putu put a stake in the ground to protect the food stocks and declared a rahui over the resource, Matatahi said.

‘‘Every day, Te Putu came and struck the top of the stick, and it would move further and further into the ground.’’

Once the stake was fully embedded, Te Putu instructed the first fishing families to harvest the tuna and place them at his feet.

‘‘The fishing families went out and caught tuna, spread them into equal shares and numbers so that it could feed the whole community: the fishing families and the non-fishing families.’’

The word ra¯ hui denotes the protection of the food stocks and po¯ keka can have three meanings: the raincoat chief Te Putu wore, a haka po¯ keka performed to lift tapu, or the po¯ keka stick, Matatahi said.

‘‘It’s a story of kaitiakitanga, it’s a story of nationhood I suppose, of working together, of sharing and caring for the environment.’’

Matatahi said the colonial naming of the town was ‘‘abrupt’’.

‘‘He stamped the mail, it said Huntly on it and then it became Huntly from then on,

I don’t know where the story is in that.

‘‘What we don’t want to be is a rubberstamped community’’.

Matatahi said reclaiming Ra¯ hui Po¯ keka is about reclaiming pride in the town.

‘‘We want to reclaim Ra¯ hui Po¯ keka and go back to the awesomeness it used to be – and turning the bad stats that’s been put on our community into the beauty we once enjoyed.’’

Huntly ward councillor Frank McInally said the debate over Huntly’s name had been ‘‘smouldering for years’’.

But he believed those who supported a change were a ‘‘splinter group’’.

‘‘We need to let the people decide. ‘‘Let’s have a referendum, if the people want a name change they can have a name change.’’

But McInally would not be calling it Ra¯ hui Po¯ keka, he said.

‘‘It’s been Huntly to me as long as I can remember it and that’s the way it should stay.’’

Waikato District Mayor Allan Sanson said he didn’t have an opinion on the name change.

‘‘There’s lots of polarising opinions around this issue, so let’s get everybody together and get them around the table.’’

Secretary for New Zealand Geographic Board Wendy Shaw said NZGB had received two inquiries from different people to change Huntly back to Raahui Pookeka, or Ra¯ hui Po¯ keka.

More information was needed before a formal submission could be made.